If you're a saavy Realtor®, (and we know you are because you're here at Active Rain), you probably already understand everything behind the meaning of one very important Real Estate word.
SYNDICATION
If you don't, let me define it for you. Syndication is when your listing is taken and uploaded to all the outside Real Estate sites after you input it into your local MLS. Syndication is what makes your listing appear at Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow and others.
I did a Google search for one of my properties the other day and was surprised to find it ranking high on a website of a Real Estate company located in another nearby state. "Hmmmm. That's odd," I thought. "Why would an Oklahoma listing be on a local Real Estate company website in another state?" After asking Jeremy of 210 Consulting to check it out for me, I discovered that they had had their website "coded" in such a way that it picked up my listing in syndication. Once the listing populated their website, the coding drove it up high into the Google search engine rankings.
Now here comes the rub. My name was nowhere associated with the listing. Oh sure, the company I work for was noted as the provider of the listing, but I was nowhere to be found. Grrr. I probably don't even need to mention how the nice Zillow people call us up all the time and want to put their hand into our wallet in order to have us listed by our very own listings that we gave to them. Yeah, that's like selling ice to Eskimos, if you ask me.
So I've been thinking about this little dilemma. How can I make myself "sticky" so that I stay with my listing(s) no matter where they go? It took me a little while, but I think I finally figured it out. And it is brilliant! And if we can pull this off, we (the Realtors® of America) will change the whole game back to our favor.
Are you ready? Here it is...
Do you see it? Yes, it's my website embedded in the photo. All we have to do is to place our website on each of our listing photos. Then, whenever the listing is syndicated out to the world, guess what happens? We go with that listing...forever! How cool is that???
Of course, there are problems with this, but I think they are problems we can overcome if enough of us get on board and "demand" this change.
The first issue will be whether or not our local MLS board allows "overlays." An overlay is anything placed on the picture such as your picture or a border or...the website. I'm not sure our local board allows this, but we're checking into it.
The second issue will be whether or not your local broker will allow the overlays. I think initially that some will and some won't. However, once enough get on board and more and more Real Estate folks jump on board, a tipping point will occur and it will become standard practice.
A third issue could be that the biggie websites like Zillow will not allow the pictures with the contact information. To that I say, "Oh well. Too bad for you. Less listings on your all powerful website mean less Google juice for you!"
Another problem could arise if outside websites crop off the website information. Of course, if they go messing around with our property, they'll find themselves in a mess of trouble (thank you Lenn Harley!).
So there you go.
I think this is a game changer that could be huge. And I think, if we all band together and get this done that we can only do ourselves a huge positive in making sure that we, who went out and did the hard work of getting that listing, get to stay with that listing.
And that's a heck of Christmas present right there!
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