I constantly see websites for real estate, mortgages and home improvements on TV. The question you should ask is how do they make money and how that will effect you.

My web site works like this. I post free information on my blog and website. A certain amount of people contact me and I email them listings. Another percentage then contact me to help them find a home. I get a real estate commission. That simple.

Mortgage companies. Do they really come crawling to you like the puppet says ? Or do they pay for your contact information ?

Zillow and Trulia collect public information from government records and listings from lovcal MLS’s, They sell your contact information and ad space to real estate agents.  How the National Association of Realtors let this happen astounds me. Realtors let them post our listings online for free and sell us back buyers contact info. Seriously ?

Home improvements. Once again selling contact info and ad space. How do they screen contractors in every city in America ?

All of which is fine as long as you realize how a website makes money.