Active Rain is a site that is designed to drive consumers to real estate agents and others in the real estate field. There are no fees and no sales pitch of any kind. Active Rain says it’s “the real estate industry’s first online networking resource for real estate professionals.”

So what is Active Rain, well it will be easy to show you some of the features and let you decide what to call it as the site is unique to say the least.

First off you have your profile, in your profile you are able to write a brief description, an “about us” section, an “Areas of Expertise” section, and list some testimonials. This profile is the page that most visitors will end up finding so make sure to take a little time when filling it out. Link to a couple key pages in your site to help visitors find what they are looking for.

Next there is a blog for each member. This blog is linked to and from your main profile page. For those that have been thinking about starting a blog this is an easy way to do it without having to learn all the details of blogging. A nice bonus to blogging is you have a chance to build some links to your site. Point visitors to important pages in your site as many times blog posts will show up in the search engines and can drive some traffic for you.

Then the networking part of the site. You can add other members as “Associates” and they are then linked from your profile. You can add agents that you know, referral sources, a loan officer, and more. This is kind of a neat feature and is a lot like MySpace friends list. I’m sure there is more benefits to this feature that I just don’t understand yet, but it will be a fun one to play with.

Now that is everything that I have had time to play with. From e-mails with one of the owners I know that their goal is to drive traffic to real estate agents, mortgage officers, inspectors and others in the field. The point is they designed this site because they got tired of seeing HG and other mega sites capturing leads and selling them to real estate agents. If things work as planned this will become a lead generating site that will not have any fees. The price is right so give it a try.

Here are a few recent posts to my blog at Active Rain, Skokie Market Conditions, Roselle Market Conditions, and Hoffman Estates Market Conditions.