I sent this post out to Vendor Alley Private Newsletters subscribers last week but thought it was worth a re-post today.
I’ve been reading a few interesting perspectives on listing syndication.
Here’s the first one:
Jon Colie, President of Champion Realty – Guest posting on MRIS‘ blog, REsource
If you think about it, a national aggregator selling agents leads off of a website becomes less about the quality of the listing database and far more about the quantity. More listings mean more “eye candy” thus more opportunities to sell agent placement.
Champion Realty is a HomeServices Company, natch!
And the second comes from a comment made on a Vendor Alley post about Brookfield acquiring Prudential:
Brad Blumberg, Smarter Agent
Am I the only one who finds it amazing that the entire real estate relo and franchisor business of Prudential just sold for $110 million, and Zillow Market Cap on that day was over $600 million. Has the value of the real estate purchase shifted to the aggregators at the expense of the value of real estate brokerage businesses. Think Edina realty, when they pulled listings from Trulia, was thinking about creating local value in their brand instead of adding value to the aggregators?
Smart!
THAT, my friend, is the true Shift in Real Estate Technology. Are people are finally waking up to it?
I’ve expanded that comment, here over at Inman News in A guest piece. It’s tough cause Zillow’s of the world do the web better than almost ANY franchisor or broker, so you get free leads at the expense of the devaluation of your brand! Zero sum, baby, also called there is no free lunch.
http://www.inman.com/opinion/guest-perspective/2011/12/19/debating-value-real-estate-aggregators