• MarketingCharts.com, Tuesday, October 30, 2007 10 AM

Squeezed by a soft housing market and tight budgets, real estate agents and brokers face difficult choices as they divvy up their fewer ad dollars according to a new study from Classified Intelligence and RealtyTimes.com. Less than half of realtors surveyed said they are spending on ads this year, compared to almost 60% in 2006.

But even though they complain about newspaper advertising, realtors are still choosing print as their prime media option. About 15% of respondents say they still advertise in print, and survey respondents vote newspapers third out of 11 categories for producing qualified leads. One reason: Half say the results from national Web sites are below their expectations. And while 39% say they are overwhelmed by the number of advertising options, only 5% think they have the media decision-making process down.

Further, the study shows that a shaky real estate outlook compels agents and brokers to stretch fewer dollars to more productive places, forcing a reassessment of media buys. Says Peter Zollman, founding principal of Classified Intelligence, "Choices for those advertising dollars have exploded, causing confusion on where to best spend their budgets."

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