Realogy Corp. (which owns Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby’s International and ERA) announced it will be syndicating its listings on the internet, sending them to real estate aggregator sites Google, Cyberhomes, AOL, Homescape, HGTV’s Frontdoor, Zillow, and Trulia. Other big real estate listing players, like Prudential, are sure to follow this marketing approach.
Question is: what will happen to the little kids when all the fat guys start belly flopping into the pool?
Glenn Robert (Inman News) in his Get Your Realogy Listings Here, ponders whether small real estate brokerages have the ability to keep up with the big boys in syndicating property listing feeds to all these sites.
Perhaps the large franchise players will dominate these website listings pools to the disadvantage of the smaller independent broker, who may have no choice but to pay for enhancements like “featured” status.
Survival of the Fittest
Eventually, every real estate home listing will be available on every real estate website, large or small. With property listings everywhere, how will all these websites survive? What will make one site stand out from the other? Consolidation seems inevitable. What do you think? What will the consumer think? Will listings, listings everywhere, just make buyers seasick?
Read More: Realogy Press Release.
Technorati Tags: Google, Cyberhomes, AOL, Homescape, Zillow, Trulia
I find it interesting that the stories about agregators always seem to “put down” the small offices when that is what makes up the large companies. Agents make up the big companies and although many work in one office, they are all actually competing.
Also, what happens tothe agregators when the “small offices” move in the direction that the NWMLS did and returns to keeping their listings under their own roof?
(see 360digest.com/2006/10/18/nwmls-to-pull-feed-to-realtorcom/).
I think, in contrast to the article above, that the independent agent has more of a chance to do business than ever before because of the Internet. I do agree, however, that larger companies control the press and have larger budgets to buy search results.
If the NWMLS ideas (that MLS is not a marketing entity) and actions catch on and other MLS pull their feeds to agregators, it will help the smaller offices get found more easily. The less data/content agregators have the less they can compete for search engine results.
Another Question:
How does Realogy react when any or all of
Google, Cyberhomes, AOL, Homescape, HGTV’s Frontdoor, Zillow, and Trulia ask to be paid for the marketing they are providing?
Consumers will continue to become more and more confused as they see all these web sites with listings on them. The little guy can get his or her listings on these web sites with the greatest of ease yet the big guys will tell their agents what a big advantage they have.
I don’t think it will have an effect on the little guys like me. The point you make about all these sites having a bunch of listings but not much value otherwise is a valid point (except maps and intersting functions). What consumers will demand is personalization and context, and until the big sites can provide that with accuracy and quality, it still falls back to personal, boutique service, at least for the more discerning consumers.
What I can’t figure out is that when consumers realize that just about any local site will have all the MLS listings, plus local knowledge and the ability to personalize the home search with area information, what will be the benefit of a huge site with hit and miss local information.
As agents get smarter with the web 2.0 mindset, the fear of spamming is lessened — why not go directly to local?
Mike, will you pay for featured status on a huge site like Zillow or Trulia or even Realtor, to help you get better visibility?
Your second paragraph is the most interesting. What will be the consumer preference? Large site or boutique?
Why not go directly to local? How does the consumer know WHERE local is be found?