Brian Balduf, CEO of VHT, says clients are "trying to find abenchmark for their marketing budgets." They want to tap newopportunities, but they also want to keep track of the competition,he says. A majority still share most of their budgets on brochures,postcards, newspaper ads and TV ads, even though only 20.4% thinknewspapers are "effective."

Nearly half--49%--rate online ads as "very effective,"specifically citing Realtor.com, Craigslist.com and Google.

According to the survey, many agents are confused about themyriad of new marketing choices, both online and offline, intraditional and non-traditional media. In addition, real estateprofessionals say there's a dearth of data to guide them. Bothbefore and after their media purchase, they say there is littledata to provide a benchmark for property programs. As a result, theagents and brokers surveyed say they have trouble tracking results,managing multiple submission forms and find it burdensome retypinglisting information for various media services. "Now there arethings like Facebook, MySpace, Craigslist.com and digital signage.So it's a real challenge," says Balduf.