The Outstanding REALTOR® Association Web Site Contest annually traces trends and highlights innovation in REALTOR® association Web site member service since the contest was created in 2001. Judges include the REALTOR® AE magazine editorial board and NAR staff. The 2012 winners were announced in May.

Winners are featured in the spring issue of REALTOR® AE magazine and online in May. Winners also receive a winner's logo to place on the winning site.

How Sites Are Judged

RAE magazine's judges evaluate sites on how well they bring outstanding member service to REALTORS®. They look at form and function, breadth and relevance, accuracy and timeliness. Judges evaluate the usability of sites as if they were members while looking for key pieces of information. They test-drive the sties' amenities and functionality.

Judging websites is subjective. Since there are such a wide variety of site styles and features, for this contest, the sites will not be judged against each other, rather they will be judged on how well each one achieves its apparent purpose and goal. In this way we can take into consideration that, for example, an online education registration form may not be a useful feature for an association with 80 members, where as it would be considered an essential for an association of 4,000 members.

Categories

The contest is divided by association size with one winner in each size category:

Size A (under 300 members)
Size B (301-800 members)
Size C (801-2,000)
Size D (2,001-7,000)
Size E (more than 7,000 members)

How to Enter

All state, local, and commercial REALTOR® associations are eligible to enter. Unless otherwise noted, the competition is not open to MLS sites or REALTOR® association specialty sites (such as issue sites, consumer-focused sites, charity sites, etc.). In the past we have focused the competition exclusively on MLS and specialty sites so stay tuned to this page for more details on the upcoming competition perimeters.

When the contest is open in January, a link to the online entry form will appear on this page. Note that you cannot save your work and return to it; a best practice is to copy and past the questions into a form (such as a Word document) that you can work on at your leisure to provide a detailed description of your association site and its goals, then paste the answers back into the form.

The deadline for the 2013 contest is March 1, 2013. Check back in January for the entry link.