Sellsius real estate marketing blog

We have a special guest blogger today — Clark Kent, from Metropolis.  Some say he’s some kind of superhero but there’s no proof of that– except he keeps running into phone booths (which are hard to find these days).

Author: Clark Kent

Speeding Bulletin

Holy green balls of kryptonite, what the heck is happening in Metropolis?

Can you smell it in the air? It’s the heavy odor of greed, desperation and corruption holding the Metropolis real estate world in its grips. Can you feel it bearing down on you like a speeding bullet? The pressure can be strong enough to almost crush your bank account as well as your psyche!

Everybody wants a piece of you right now. Would you like to know why? Because they can smell the market turn around coming and they are lining up to fleece you. They are pushing up on the search engines in an effort to reach those enviable top positions, all the while telling you that SEO isn’t important. Recently they have even begun to tell you that you don’t even need to blog anymore. Just come play on our social networking sites, the consumer is waiting for your arrival. Sure they are.

They’re pushing ads on their sites, selling you traffic – that they get by jumping you, the local Realtor, on the engines. They are publishing your listings, with or without your express permission, and are redirecting traffic to partners who will share in the spoils, and your Brokers are in bed with them.

The perception of real estate professionals has always been that they earn big bucks; many believe they earn too much; some actually do. They want your earnings! What’s the problem? There are so many of them that they are about to break the bank – if you let them. Your web presence is about to cost you a lot of bucks, have you noticed the rising costs already? Like drug dealers they enticed you into free networks and services while building their sites in a dead market, turning Realtors into social networking junkies and building their sites with the content which Realtors provided. Now they want you to pay dearly for the privilege of continuing to use the sites that you helped to build.

Choose carefully from the many services available, use those that support you and your business, not those that are warm, fuzzy and comfortable. Warm, fuzzy and comfortable is a trap. Real Estate is a business – a big one, and it has always been hard core, if you don’t like the way that sounds, then you have never worked with a bad broker or had a lead or a client stolen from you, or you were too oblivious to notice. If you are into the warmer and fuzzier side of this business you are in for a rude awakening.

What is going on in the Metropolis Real Estate world?

• It appears that listing (MLS) feeds are being re-fed to companies who crave but don’t qualify for the feeds. Why? Because they lack the good old Brokers license necessary to acquire those feeds and they are very, very hungry. Hey what the heck, you’re my buddy, here I’ll slide you my feed, who is going to find out? Yeah, drop a few bucks in my account in the Caymans while you enjoy my time share, have a great trip, say hello to the wife. Thanks buddy!

• Site’s feeding listings that were never authorized to them.

• Site’s displaying what seems to be the listing agent’s information, but redirecting to other sites.

• And more…

Would you like to know how they get caught? The same way criminals have been caught for centuries, they become complacent and make a simple mistake. A sharp eye sees the incongruous error and the slight of hand becomes gutted, open and visible.

Oh, you want a better explanation? OK.

Let’s say that a Big National Gorilla Company has a large share of the nationwide listings, but just can’t get their hands on all of them because they are not a licensed brokerage. A buddy of theirs owns Big National Elephant company who has all the MLS feeds and is licensed. The ultimate goal of both is ROI, income baby, black gold, money. Big National Elephant Company offers to feed Big National Gorilla Company on the down low for a share of the take. Double dipping, both companies are now referring leads back to brokers and such from one feed purchase.

One day, one little Realtor places their listing on Big National Gorillas website and notices that the photo allegedly provided by Google Street views is of a building 2 doors down from the listing. When the Realtor contacts Big National Gorilla Company they apologize, but do not have the ability to change it, offering to remove it instead. OK, it is better than the wrong photo, it is replaced by a Google map. The Realtor wonders if any other listing sites are also displaying Google Street views incorrectly and goes on a search by address. What does the Realtor find? All other sites but one are displaying the correct picture. Well that can’t be a Google Street view error then, can it? Realtor sends an email to Big National Elephant Company, who is also displaying the same wrong photo, explaining that the photo is wrong and is an embarrassment to both them and the Realtor, can they either correct or remove it? Big national Elephant Company responds via email explaining that they placed the pin in the wrong place when setting up the Google Street Views photo; they are so sorry and have corrected the error, please accept our apologies. Hmm…

Ummmmmmmm; lets discuss Big National Gorillas reason for displaying the wrong photo again. They stated:

• Feed comes straight from Google Street Views

• They cannot change it

• They cannot replace the photo

• They can remove it

• They replaced it with a Google Map

Does anybody else see something wrong here? What do you think the chances are that 2 large national sites are displaying the same wrong photo, while all other sites have the correct one?

Big National Gorilla Company is going to get your listings at any cost to them, whether they can have them legally – or not; whether you authorize them to have them – or not. Do you see how irrelevant you, the Realtor, are in their master plan?

The online Realtor has an advantage over all other Real Estate Professionals. We are involved. We know the players. We have seen what they are capable of. We are just plain more knowledgeable, together we are a force to be reckoned with.

So what can we do about it? We can get involved at our local board level. We can join their MLS committees and educate. We can get involved at the state level and we can take over NAR in a short few years.

Get involved today. Your future may depend on it.

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