Zillow and Trulia have been amazing break-throughs to gain exposure for listings, but my bet is they will never have ALL THE DATA, and until they do, consumers will find them sorely lacking. The Internet needs to serve the consumer, satisfy the consumer; and only then can it perform the services that real estate professional need to be successful. Fool consumers once on The Internet and they remember that you are disingenuous and they will look for alternatives.

Brokers and agents need to make money in order to survive. The good ones perform very worthwhile service and I believe – no matter how much automation is available – that truly helpful brokers and agents will always have a place in the transaction.

Jeff.Johnston@besthomepro.com

Graham Davis
http://www.ARTIS-USA.com
Syndication direct from your listings datbase

I find it interesting so many MLSs and vendors assume one size fits all and that there should only be one site for consumers to search for real estate on.
If the internet is the new market place, and I think it is, then we need to understand that consumers are not all looking for the same “shopping” experience. For example, if I want to buy a shirt, there are a variety of options available to me as a consumer ranging from Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Kmart. My budget and desired shopping experience will dictate which store I finally buy my shirt at. Sure, I might browse through the higher end stores but my economic realities will have more influence on my final purchase than my ability to browse through a store.
Real estate search portals are no different. The chances are very slim that any search portal provider, whether a private company or an MLS, can develop a site that meets every consumer’s real estate shopping need. My point is that there is not only room for a variety of search portals but an absolute need to provide consumers with choices as to how they shop for real estate.
Just as in the physical shopping world, the “winners” in the Internet market will be decided by consumers. The challenge is to provide the most consumers with the best products and services possible. It doesn’t matter what you are selling, if a company can do that, they will never have to worry about staying in business.
MLSs and private vendors have unique strengths that allow them to do certain things better than the other. I have yet to see an example of a company that takes its focus off their core product and/or service to enter or expand into something they have very little previous experience, without it having a negative impact on their primary business. Invariably, this only results in mediocrity in all of their products.
I would suggest another option is to work cooperatively, allowing each provider to maximize their strengths with the end result being that consumers have a wider array of choices and the quality of the choices will be exponentially better.

Lloyd

It is estimated that approximately 15% of all property for sale in the US is FSBO (for sale by owner). Online real estate in 2008 is like travel in 1998 – and FSBO is the stepchild of online real estate. Everybody knows that real estate is one of the largest industries on the planet in the offline world. As long as more gurus and dollars are invested in online music, video, travel, and job search, it should be no surprise that online real estate will continue as a dwarf vertical.

We are not at all “tired” of the large, commercial sites. Initially some of us may have been abit jealous as they appeared to more easily ride the waves of innovation and consumer preferences. Well lets face it, some of them did move very quickly. And to be certain, each has contributed enormous innovation.

The fact that our HDB effort has their attention is quite a compliment. True, there are probably a few we like better than others, that have done a better job of making entities like MRIS (and more importantly our brokers) feel appreciated. But whatever we felt, mattered little if the consumer felt better. So HDB is our reponse to the dynamics in the market as opposed to any single site or our “weariness”.

HDB has been available to consumers in the metro DC and Baltimore market since 1999. However, since implementation, we have done very little to broadcast/market HDB. Its quiet but very definite success has been accomplished via word of mouth among our brokers, agents and interested consumers.

We recently decided to build a new site with a far more contemporary look and feel. We are devoting far more marketing and communication resources to HDB once we muscle through beta. Our primary goal is to augment and reduce the expense that our customers incur by drawing more attention to their inventory. If we can do this and interest the visitor at the same time, then we are truly on to something.

We do not claim to be a destination site. We are not “all things to all people”. We are only in the mid-atlantic. We adhere to the principle that real estate is local. We certainly are the primary, collective source of all listing information. Nothing is more current than the inventory we assemble for our brokers. We do not plan to sell ads to anyone, even our own customers. We are self-funding this effort and believe it is sustainable. Our “payday” will come when our customers get better aligned with more buyers and sellers. Plain and simple, we think we can do a better job of driving unencumbered traffic to them. Time will tell.

We know there are other MLS markets that have consumer sites. A few are mentioned in earlier posts. Many others are contemplating developing one. We applaud all of them. We think the big kids on the block are going to be tough to unseat. We also know that several of them filled a void several years ago. Now it’s our turn.

Thanks everyone for weighing in!

MLSPIN is among a variety of MLSs that push listings to Trulia and others. Moreover, if you look at the adoption of Listhub (more than 100 MLSs) brokers in their markets are enabled with the functionality to opt in to more than 30 public sites for listing syndication.

HomelessLocator.com

On side note: We just announced our leap into D.C. today! The site is live (http://DC.CondoDomain.com) although we are about a week behind with our MLS feed implementation, but you can search all new developments, foreclosure, auction listings.

Spencer from Zillow here.

I have to agree with Sami — the fact that MRIS is launching a public facing website is not an indication that they “hate” Zillow or Trulia. Some MLSs choose to have public facing websites because they view it to be a service to their member brokerages, their agents, and consumers. The Houston MLS (”HAR”) has had a public website for a long time, and they’re one of Zillow’s biggest fans. (http://www.zill...altors/2008/11/) In fact, I was on a panel with Bob Hale (the head of HAR) just last week at the National Association of Realtors conference in Orlando in which he described in detail how supportive they are of broad listings syndication to sites like Zillow. Bob, one of the most influential MLS executives in the country, describes himself as one of Zillow’s biggest fans.

Zillow receives listings from many MLSs, including Houston, Long Island and Boston (MLS_PIN). In the case of MLSs which have public websites (like HAR), we’re an important traffic source for their websites. You’ll notice that the HAR’s listings on Zillow send traffic (and followed links for SEO) to HAR.com.

Whether or not to have a public facing website is an ongoing debate in the world of MLSs. Only a handful currently have them, but I do expect that more will launch them in the future. It’s part of the natural evolution that the Internet has brought us, which opens up all databases to public view. It’s not an indication of any hatred of Zillow or anyone else.

I’m happy to talk to you (or anyone else) about this if you’d like. Feel free to email me at spencer AT zillow DOT com.

Consumers have had access to complete MLS listing compilations online for years through thousands of local brokerage sites (e.g., http://www.apr.com here in the bay area) as well as through public facing MLS web sites. MRIS is one of the most forward looking MLSes, but there are also dozens of other MLSes across the country who have a public facing search site (e.g., http://www.har.com and http://www.themls.com). Access to real estate listings online is ubiquitous today – far from monopolizing listing access.

You mentioned MLSes “hate” national online real estate sites, like Trulia. Trulia has no interest in being in the MLS business and most MLSes have no interest or aspirations in being a consumer focused online media company like Trulia. Promoting real estate listings online is about maximizing buyer and seller exposure: many MLSes (as well as the brokerage firms individually who are the members of an MLS) syndicate all their listings to sites like Trulia, as well as have their own consumer facing site. There is no conflict between those two. It is about maximum exposure, not about monopolizing listing data today. This is in the best interest of both consumers and real estate professionals. David Charron at MRIS is a very sharp executive and a friend of ours and he recognizes that too.

#1. While the providing of a consumer-facing interface like MRIS might be a big deal in many parts of the country, others like our own Ventura County area MLS have allowed public access to all active MLS listings for some time now [cvar.com] ; including every information field the brokers/ agents see except for the personal field where often private/ delicate information like hours the owners are home, any special family/ occupant needs/ requirements, etc.

#2. While various companies provide a “you must register first to see the good stuff” interface for the realty companies which choose this constricted route, our MLS also has no problem with anyone linking directly to the cvar.com site from their own site; as we have done with our own community website http://www.conejovalley.com.

#3. Realtor.com has supplied for some years now a virtually complete, publicly-accessible site for all the country’s MLS systems. And while the “per listing” information the MLSs upload to them is not as comprehensive as that offered by forward-thinking MLSs like ours, it is nonetheless the most accurate, most current, most used home database in the nation.

#4. Though I personally chose to leave the Realtor associations many years ago due to their too-often anti-public interest policies, an experienced (at least 5 full-time years, 10+ is better), knowledgeable (at least 3 years in the community they’re working in; 5+ is better) realty professional who cares only about their clients best interests and not how much they’ll earn for any particular sale is invaluable to home sellers and buyers.

Even when a home a client wants is for sale by owner, it’s still a good idea to hire your own agent to negotiate the purchase and get it through the often difficult and confusing loan/ closing process.

Many professionals provide such a service for just 1-2% of the sales price; a bargain for what they provide.

The beta is a new, “Web 2.0″ish design, but otherwise it’s the same data, same site, same access…

Homesdatabase.com has been around for at least two years. I know because I used it to find my condo in Maryland back in 2006.

They probably put some lipstick on it and made it all jazzy but it still does the same thing. It give you listing data.

I suppose their happy since they were able to get some press.