Monetization strategies for real estate niche

[cinguear]

I am not certain if this is the best section for this topic -- please let me know if I should post this elsewhere instead.
Now I am researching to try some micro-geo (in the US) real estate niche sites. I know quite a bit about the industry, but have a few questions when it comes to monetization of online sites in this niche.

Are there any free Wordpress plugins or general applets which will display local real estate listings for free without an MLS subscription?
What are the paid listing referral programs?
Any particularly relevant affiliate networks to check out for real estate?
Any links of great examples of monetized real estate websites?
Any legal issues I should be wary of?
Any other comments, tips, or feedback would be appreciated.

[stapolinhost]

I dont know a whole lot about real estate, but if you are to monetize a website of any sort, the first thing you will need is the right amount of traffic...

Once you have the traffic on the site, then you should be able to sell ad space to real estate agents.

You mentioned WordPress, this is a good starting point and there are many different plugins you could use to help monetize the site, but if you are serious about turning the site into a money maker, then it could be a good idea to plash out a small amount of dollars on a plugin/theme from here.

I have personally purchased a few of their themes, and they are extremely good and very customizable. Here is one I set up (but need to start developing properly) seek-biz.com as an example of a live site using a premium theme instead of a free one. There are options for agents to list their properties too on the real estate one, and I think you can charge a rate too.
You can also place banner ads around the site from the options in the admin dashboard..

Anyway, thats my 2 bits.. hope it helps in some way.

Eoin