Keller Williams Realty has a new listing service, KWLS, where agents can enter their property listings in one place and have them available for display on Keller Willaims’ agents and office websites everywhere. That “everywhere” is pretty big. Keller Williams Realty is the fourth largest real estate franchise in North America with 72,618 associates and 591 market centers. It began franchising in 1990 and is reportedly growing by 1,000 agents a month. The behemoth franchise also plans to partner with internet search engines, according to their press release today. We’ll keep you posted.
CEO Mark Willis attributes the steady growth of Keller Williams to its “agent-centric, learning-based business model and razor sharp focus on technology and the internet.”
Source: PRWeb Press Release, December 30, 2006.
The trend for franchises will be to strengthen their brand identity on the internet.
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Im not sure what Keller Williams angle is with this. I work at KW and got an email about it. From what I understand when a real estate listing is posted in the mls the listing agent can choose to not have the listing released to third party sites. Apparently, these house listings will appear on KW but not on other third party sites. Some agents have complained that they lose control of their listings having them displayed on websites they would rather not see them on. I always release my listings to third party sites but different people have different opinions. Anyway with KWLS realtors can post to KWLS but not release it to a vast array of uknown websites.
So looking at KWLS and a third party site each will have some listings the other does not. The question is whether KWLS will be a subset of the MLS. For instance I post some listings on my website Real Estate Listings before they are posted on the mls if they are currently being remodeled. The reason being I dont want to run up my days on market when their is a small chance of selling a property. So basically can listings be posted on KWLS that are not posted on the mls. If that is true that would be interesting.
Very interesting Austin. Thanks for sharing. We would like to learn more about KWLS and how the agents feel about it. I wonder if KW felt the RE/MAX website model was brand or commission diluting or somehow not the better way to go. What’s your opinion of the RE/MAX model?
The intention of KWLS is not to replace the Realtor MLS. It will just allow the agents the oppurtunity to have their listing displayed where they want. Example. If I go to the local MLS and I ask them to send my listing to Google Base, they will say “No”. They will say that is their data. If I want it on Google Base I would have to input all new data into Google Base. The MLS will only feed to Third Party web-sites they have contracts with. KWLS will not stop this but allow an agent and their seller to send it to additional websites that they want. It will allow them to own their own data again.
I dont actually know what the remax model is. What is the difference between the remax model and KWLS?
Darin.
That makes sense. I thought KWLS would simply restrict listings from some third party sites. But you are right it also allows KW to send listings where they want without approval from the mls people.
Austin,
RE/MAX displays all MLS listings not just RE/MAX listings. KWLS is only KW listings, correct?
The KWLS is wonderful in theory because an earlier post is correct in that every MLS owns the data from our listings. The problem that I anticipate (because each KW agent would have to manually input each listing but won’t) is that our inventories are going to look weak.
Thoughts?
As a RE/MAX agent with plenty of experience analyzing their model it seems as though the difference between the two strategies comes down to lead generation. RE/MAX’s approach has always been to generate and provide leads to their agents to add value, Keller Williams seems to be more of a promotional tool for their agents listings.
To repeat and simplify; RE/MAX is focused on getting new business and KW is focused on promoting listings. Of course promoting agent listings can get you leads as well…but not in the same manner as the RE/MAX approach.
Here’s a question…Can KW agents keep their listings off a the REMAX.com website?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Incredible. We too would like to know the answer to your question whether KW agents can keep their listings off REMAX? And if so, how? Also, would they want to keep them off? A co-broke is not bad and it’s on another venue. Isn’t that a good thing?
That’s the question of the day. Why wouldn’t they want to put their listings everywhere they can? If someone buys the home, they still get paid because they’re the one who promoted the listing in the MLS. It doesn’t make sense for agents to stop anyone from promoting their listing for them…especially if it’s free.
I believe the issue stems from the outsiders using agent listings to build traffic/value for their website. Content is king and agents see these new models as content thieves.
My original question was a little ficicious because there is a serious grey area with this whole topic. What’s the difference between Google Base and REMAX.com/KW? They’re all trying to do the same thing…build targeted traffic to generate leads and sell homes. Just because Google Base isn’t a traditional real estate brokerage doesn’t mean they can’t help agents sell homes. So why stop them?
We agree with your well reasoned comment, Incredible. Every online venue is a sign on the internet superhighway. You just don’t know on which sign your buyer may see your listing, so be on as many as you can. If the cost is free or very low, we can see few reasons why a listing broker (and seller) would not like the greatest dissemination of the listing. After all, the object is to sell the house. The more traffic that gets to see it, the better your chances.
Can anyone suggest why this should not be the case?
From KW:
“The KWLS will help you take back control of where and when your listings are marketed on the Web and will give those listings international exposure.”
“Take back control” from the MLSs is the key point here. KW will be partnering with “third party” websites to get more exposure for KW listings.
That’s great, and I cannot suggest why someone would not want maximum exposure for their listings. Content is king and listings are lead generators no matter whose listing it is. I’ve seen many agents get defensive when they see their listing on a competitors website with that person’s contact info. If it’s on the MLS and you’re offering co-operative compensation, so what? Thanks for the free advertising and bring us a buyer! We are marketers by the way.
Problem is, now whenever I update a listing, be it price, status, whatever, I have to go to multiple (the list is growing) sites to make the changes. Hopefully the KWLS will partner with enough sites so that the MLS and the KWLS alone are adequate.
The KWLS should write a feed so they can upload all KW listings from all MLS’s, like Remax does, agents should only have to enter listings once. The KWLS back end has a lot of bugs in it and is not very detailed, will not let you enter any listing without a photo, KW response was to upload a map…. also all of your listings have to be approved by KW, and you have to check back to see if approved, I don’t get that. KW gets their feed now from realtor.com, that is what they are discontinuing Feb.1st. Don’t understand why we have enter listings
twice, you would think KW would have someone that could write feeds, like third party sites to create their own listing service, it would be more accurate…
KWLS isn’t really about consumers finding the listings on KWLS like the Re/Max model is. Re/Max model pulls listings into their website for the consumer to search that particular website; KWLS pushes the listings out to multiple websites/real estate search engines that the consumer has access to. If the local MLS approves, KWLS may be able to pull their agents’ listings into KWLS to avoid the double entry in the future, but even as is, KWLS pushes the listings out to google, etc. otherwise you’d need to enter them into each of those real estate search engines not just a second time into KWLS (I don’t have the list of sites in front of me so don’t want to quote the specific sites from memory).
And a previous poster was correct when they commented that the leads to the broker are reduced, the leads go to the listing agent because that’s how KW works as an agent-centric company.
I would not want to stop my agents listings showing up on ReMax. I do want control over where they don’t show up and get them there.
It’s disappointing to hear any agent, KW, Remax, C21 CB, complain about entering a listings twice, thrice or more. That is marketing and promotion for your seller. What are they paying you for if you are not willing to do some data entry once in awhile. And I love the fact that you can’t upload a listing without a photo. The MLS’s should do this. It’s a waste to not have a photo. Ask the consumer.
There is no complaining here, my listings all over over everywhere, it is not necessary the way technology is today to do double or triple entry. It is about having a state of the art technology team behind you.