I returned a call from Realtors.com yesterday which turned out to be a sales call to upgrade to their premium service for listings. Agents that do not pony up $67 per month do not have all the available data for their listings displayed. There are 16 available photos in RMLS for the listing I used as a test.  Four are available on Realtor.com.  All 16 pictures are available on RMLS, John L. Scott, Hasson and Prudential Northwest Properties‘ websites.

When I told the saleman that we would discuss their product between us it became a high pressure sales pitch in which he did everything but call me cheap without using those words directly as I would sign up NOW.  I’m not really impressed with the site anyways: they limit information available to the customer (because “they are a for profit public company”).  They reward bad photography: they allow up to 25 photos (for premium users) to be posted and push the listings with the most photos to the top .  He guided me to an 800 square foot condo listing with 25 pictures.  There were probably 10 worthwhile ones and 15 fillers.

If I were searching for Portland area real estate I would use a local site. Use a site with complete information.