@ is a hard seller – mid market. Less sophisticated buyer.

I neither work nor have affiliations with either.

I imagine whatever firm designed the new site told @properties to remove the mandatory registration because new users are in the discovery phase. That is, new users want to experience your site, brand and value prior to passing along their email address. However, some Hippo (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) for @properties directed the design firm to leave it in, “Otherwise we won’t be able to build up a bank of email address for our agents to SPAM.”

Just imagine if amazon.com asked you to register prior to browsing their catalog of products. What if bmwusa.com asked visitors to register for their site before using the configuration tool? Better yet, perhaps redfin.com should adopt this model before users have the chance to discover how useful their real estate listings are.

It would be nice if users could check out the new site and build a positive impression of the @properties brand. Instead, they are left feeling as if @properties wants to capture their information prior to starting any sort of relationship.

Hopefully the forced registration will be removed soon.