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Zillow Buys Diverse Solutions: Why It May Not Be Good For YOU!

By Stephen Garner

Services for Real Estate Pros with Hub Media Company

November 03, 2011 04:34 AM

Attention Real Estate Peeps, It Likely Just Got A Lot Harder To Get Found Online

Yesterday Zillow Announced it acquired Diverse Solutions. I am not a real estate agent, REALTOR®, Real Estate Consultant or any combination thereof but I believe it likely just got harder for real estate agents like yourself to get "found" online.

As Twitter exploded with congratulations to Zillow and Diverse Solutions [congratulations to you both by the way] from real estate agents, REALTORS®, Inman and the like I am scratching my head. “Don’t they know what this could mean?” I thought.

I believe 3rd party aggregators like REALTOR.com, Zillow and Trulia.com are COMPETITORS to real estate agents. I don’t blame these competitors, they are doing what most real estate agents cannot or will not do, they are optimizing the data [listings] real estate agents, REALTORS® and their brokers create, combining it with quality, educational and valuable content to draw consumers to their websites. If YOU [real estate agent] are not going to do it – why shouldn’t they?

Do a Google search for real estate in your area, chances are you will find one of the big 3 [as I like to call them] at the top of the search engines: REALTOR.COM, ZILLOW.COM or TRULIA.COM. Today more than 94% of consumers are going online FIRST when starting their home search. They go online, they land on one of the big 3 and they do what? Register. Wouldn’t you? Their websites are optimized, consumer friendly, ergonomic and educational – everything your real estate websites likely are not. Those leads are then sold to real estate agents – your competitors – that advertise on said websites. Follow me here:

One of the best ways to compete with the big 3 was to blog regularly, on your website, on Active Rain etc about hyper-local search terms, “4-bedroom-2-bath-homes-for-sale-Scottsdale”, “Homes-For-Sale-Under-200,000-Chandler” “1234-E-Main-Street-Los Angeles” etc. In the recent years there has been a shift towards indexable IDX [internet Data Exchange] solutions. An IDX gives consumers the ability to search for homes on your real estate website. A real estate website without an IDX is like a car without an engine, it ain’t goin nowhere.

Unlike a traditional IDX that displays the data [homes for sale] consumers are searching for online in an iframe, [rendering them invisible to search engines like Google], an indexable IDX displays the data on a website in a way that search engines can see it. Hence drawing traffic [consumers] to websites utilizing this technology. A good indexable IDX ccan create thousands of indexable property listing pages on a REALTORS® website for hyper-local search terms consumers looking for a home would use. More indexable content, more consumers – more consumers, more leads – more leads, more closed deals.

Diverse Solutions offers an Indexable IDX Solution. Unlike Zillow, Diverse Solutions is not, shall I sayWAS NOT a competitor to you, they provided a solution that helped real estate agents [like you] get found online. A solution that could legitimately compete for traffic with the big 3.

If Diverse Solutions is going to be used [by Zillow] to help you drive traffic to your real estate websites,all is right in the world, BUT [and here's the RUB] IF Diverse Solutions is going to be used to drive more traffic to Zillow.COM and AWAY from your real estate website then Watch Out cause it just got harder to get found online.

It will be interesting to see what transpires in the coming months with Zillow and Diverse Solutions. Besides Zillow and Diverse Solutions, There are “other” winners in this acquisition, the other IDX companies with an Indexable IDX . I suspect this news will have some real estate agents [weary of the big 3] heading for the exits, they will more than likely be looking for another Indexable IDX Solution.

Your thoughts? Is this good or bad for the real estate community?

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Gabe Sanders

Real Estate of Florida specializing in Martin County Residential Homes, Condos and Land Sales - Stuart, FL

Stuart Florida Real Estate

You are 100% correct. They are the competition, that is unless you are one of those agents that pay through the nose for some sketchy leads from these folks.

Nov 04, 2011 01:03 AM

Ellie McIntire

Ellicott City Clarksville Howard County Maryland Real Estate - Ellicott City, MD

Luxury service in Central Maryland

An interesting thread to follow. It seems that Zillow is aquiring a lot of related companies. They really have come a long way.

Nov 04, 2011 02:08 AM

Barbara-Jo Roberts Berberi, MA, PSA, TRC - Greater Clearwater Florida Residential Real Estate Professional

Charles Rutenberg Realty - Clearwater, FL

Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Clearwater, Safety Harbor

Zillow is one of those companies at are nothing more than competition for us, the Realtors out there and OFTEN their information is inaccurate and out dated!

Nov 04, 2011 03:04 AM

Sandy Acevedo

951-290-8588 - Chino Hills, CA

RE/MAX Masters, Inland Empire Homes for Sale

As has been said, we (agents and brokers)have the product (data, listings) that the Big three want (in order to sell it back to us). If that is true, then we should not be held ransom, but should dictate our future course. If NetFlix and BofA customers fought back and made these corporations listen by voting with their feet, then is it too improbable to think that we could do it too?

Nov 04, 2011 04:43 AM

Stephen Garner

Hub Media Company - Tempe, AZ

Hub Media Company

@Sandy, I would agree with you. I have no clue how the RE industry allowed REALTOR.com to compete with them. It's inconceivable to me how that one happened. Unfortunately most agents are ignorant to these kind of things. :-( What will be interesting though is how R.com and Trulia respond to Zillow's acquisition of an IDX. I think the war has just begun and agents will likely be the 1st casualty.

Nov 04, 2011 04:52 AM

Karen Fiddler, Broker/Owner

Karen Parsons-Fiddler, Broker 949-510-2395 - Mission Viejo, CA

Orange County & Lake Arrowhead, CA (949)510-2395

Wow...what an interesting conversation. More and more these monopolies are coming into play and it's worrisome. I so appreciate all the ideas shared here....was that a soft comment? I'm with DS but will do some research about Realtysoft now. thanks

Nov 04, 2011 05:33 AM

Tammie White, Broker

Franklin Homes Realty LLC - Franklin, TN

Franklin TN Homes for Sale

Jonathan, comment #23, I don't know what you mean about the scripting not indicating my site is indexable. All I know is that people are inputting addresses and my site pops up. Buyers call thinking it's my listing because my website popped up on Google. If that's not indexable, I don't know what is. I didn't have this happen when I was with KW. That's all I'm saying.

Nov 04, 2011 05:47 AM

Anonymous

James Montrose

Hey Tammie,

I am very interested and thinking of using Realty Soft, can you provide us with a few examples so we can see it in action. Or if anyone else can provide us with examples of how Realty Soft's product is indexing on a site that would be great. Thanks guys!

Nov 04, 2011 05:55 AM

#46

Curtis Van Carter

Better Homes & Gardens Wine Country Group - Yountville, CA

Your Napa Valley Broker Extraordinaire

Stephen

Great post. This topic has been in my mind since I first saw the news of the sale of DS to Zillow. I am going to ask my web guy what he thinks for he has gotten me some great results on Google search. He was very big on DS and the Google juice it got you. For now I am going to stay with DS IDXpress but will definite have to stay on top of this and will let other AR members now if the purchase changes things. The one big question I do have, is there anything else out there???

Nov 04, 2011 07:08 AM

Peyman Aleagha

RealtySoft.com - Toronto, ON

Hello everyone,

Peyman Aleagha from RealtySoft.com here. Just wanted to answer some of your questions. RealtySoft IDX solution is an Indexable IDX solution. One of our sample clients sites can be viewed here:

http://www.thevearusgroup.com/

If you head to Google and do a search to see all indexed pages for this site you will notice that over 2780 pages have been indexed by Google (Click the link below and go to pages 2 and 3 and beyond and you will see all the listings)

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.thevearusgroup.com%2F&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images

Here is some links for you to check out:

- Find out more about RealtySoft IDX

- Check out all the featuers

- View our MLS Coverage

Nov 04, 2011 07:39 AM

Anonymous

James Montrose

Thanks Payman,

Just to be clear this will index on any website right? Can we customize the look of the solution itself it has a bit of a clunky feel, do we have access to changing the way it looks on our site? I also notice that the link structure for the listings is not as clean as it could be http://www.thevearusgroup.com/MIBOR/IDX101-7316970/IN/City/Carmel/Type/Residentail-Condominium/MLSNO-21142212/10246-TAMMER-DR-Carmel-IN-46032/01007,982&ret=aHR0cDovL3d3dy50aGV2ZWFydXNncm91cC5jb20vTUlCT1IvSURYMTAxLTczMTY5NzAvSU4tSU4tSU4tSU4tSU4vQ2l0eS9JbmRpYW5hcG9saXMrQ2FybWVsK0Zpc2hlcnMrV2VzdGZpZWxkK0ZvcnR2aWxsZS9UeXBlL0FsbC9saXN0aW5ncz9TdGF0dXM9QWN0aXZlJlByaWNlPTIwMDAwMC0zMDAwMDAmU2VhcmNoT3B0PTEma2V5b3B0PTEmY2lkPTMwMDY1LDI5OTA1LDI5OTE4LDI5OTUyLDI5OTIwJnJlc3VsdHR5cGU9OTkmdGlkPUFsbCZxcz0wJmhkcj0wMTAwNyw5ODI= all that at teh end is NOT google friendly, will I have access to cleaning that up? Thanks again!

Nov 04, 2011 08:18 AM

#49

Peyman Aleagha

RealtySoft.com - Toronto, ON

Hi James,

- If the URL is not Google friendly how come it was picked up and indexed by Google :) If you remove the ending you can still access the listing using this URL but the system automatically generates it within our IDX solution for technical reasons:

http://www.thevearusgroup.com/MIBOR/IDX101-7316970/IN/City/Carmel/Type/Residentail-Condominium/MLSNO-21142212/10246-TAMMER-DR-Carmel-IN-46032

- You can WRAP our IDX around your existing website (we will help you with the integration). The IDX pages will be hosted on a "SUB DOMAIN" of your existing domain name. Here is an example:

rachel-best.com is a custom website hosted with a different provider. We host their sub-domain (the HOME SEARCH tab):

http://myhomesearch.rachel-best.com/MRIS/RachelBest_New_IDX/59206

and here is the listings they have indexed on Google:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fmyhomesearch.rachel-best.com&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images#q=site:http://myhomesearch.rachel-best.com&hl=en&lr=&prmd=imvns&ei=NEC0TrrnNsuLsAKuyM3OAw&start=90&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=fe892f1d7a09d55d&biw=1600&bih=771

Nov 04, 2011 08:44 AM

Kevin Vitali

EXIT Realty Beatrice Associates - Middleton, MA

Helping Massachusetts Home Buyers and Home Sellers

Ah another good tech company goes down the drain... this is the third time for me..... first Advanced Access then Point 2 Agent, now Diverse solutions.....

Nov 04, 2011 09:12 AM

Anonymous

James Montrose

Well Payman, you are saying that its indexing but when you do a google search for 10246 TAMMER DR CARMEL, IN 46032 the website www.thevearusgroup.com is no where to be found so if it is being indexed its not doing the site any good because no one can find it. As far as your comment about sub domains my SEO specialist said to stay away from that because we dont want to get a subdomain ranked we want our actual domain to be ranked that way this will all work with everything else we are doing to get our url (our actual url) to be ranked with Google. One of your competators (IDX Broker) tried to give me athat same 'wraper' pitch but that's just not the right way to do things and its discouraging that idx companies are trying to use that as a work around because when its all said and done its not giving the sites true url any real Google love. Thanks anyways Paymen but I was looking for something that is truly being indexed on my actual domain and that actually ranks well in the search engines. After all if no one can find it whats the point of having it indexed? This is discouraging to say the least but I do appreciate your time. :(

Nov 04, 2011 09:43 AM

#52

Peyman Aleagha

RealtySoft.com - Toronto, ON

James -> Getting a page indexed and getting a page ranked are two different things and depend on many factors including back links, content, competition. Do a search for "25A Oak Ave, Richmond Hill" and our client's website comes up number 1 or 2 (NinasDreamHomes.com)

In regards to the sub-domain and wrapper, the only way you can have them on the same domain is by using a WordPress plugin such as the one provided by Diverse Solutions. We do plan on rolling out our own WP plugin, Facebook IDX and other versions of our IDX solution but that is not something that we offer today.

Nov 04, 2011 10:14 AM

Justin Dibbs

Fairway Independent Mortgage - Ashburn, VA

Mortgage Advisor

I'm glad I've been holding off on Diverse Solutions. I wwas going to decide between them and another vendor but not that Zillow owns them, no way!

Nov 04, 2011 10:41 AM

Spot-on! Connect

Olympia, WA

Hello All,

We have developed a new indexable WordPress IDX plugin. It is simple to install and can search your entire MLS and display search engine friendly URL's in your WordPress site. All listings can be indexed by search engines. We are a new product and adding new MLS areas constantly. If we don't have your board, we would be happy to work with you to add it. You can learn more at http://spotonconnect.com. Check out the video to see how easy it is to get started.

Nov 04, 2011 05:36 PM

Brad Andersohn

Retired Executive Director of Education at eXp - Boulder Creek, CA

ActiveBrad - 707.646.1876

Hey everyone, sorry for jumping in here so late. (And pardon me for doing it with both feet!) <big smile>

There is always going to be changes in the air, even here at ActiveRain. Now that Market Leader is 100% owner of the site, I am already getting emails with questions and concerns. With Zillow acquiring Diverse Solutions, I'm getting additional contacts with questions just as I did when Zillow acquired Postlets.

Today, it is business as usual on Zillow, DS, and Postlets just as it is with ActiveRain and Market Leader, (except Postlets Pro is now free) but we know there will always be those who want and need to share their voice, opinions and comments which is what makes sites like AR and countries like America so great to be a part of and to live in. I respect that~

With all due respect to Stephen, his post, and all the comments here, I'm very excited that we have made this decision and I'm looking forward to learning more about how this acquisition will allow me an even greater opportunity to help those I've built and established great relationships with to do more business, and be more effective in this challenging economy and an even more challenging industry at present.

Those of you who know me here, know that I am ALL about helping you and your business on every level. I'm on your side and always have been for the past 26 years! In that regard, some things will never change and I'm not too humble to admit that. My personal motto is and always has been "Looking for better, faster, and more efficient ways and tools to help YOU get the job done!" Zillow has been an excellent resource and continually helps me to do just that!

Stay tuned, because change, just like time.... cannot be stopped! As always, my door and line are open to you. :-)

Nov 05, 2011 04:59 AM

Stephen Garner

Hub Media Company - Tempe, AZ

Hub Media Company

@Brad, thanks for stopping by, and thank you for your reassurance. I think I am speaking for everyone when I say that I know you have always supported real estate professionals and their quest to grow their businesses.

PS, Long time no see. Been a long time since "City Hall" huh?

Nov 05, 2011 05:12 AM

Andi Grant

310-508-4354 | FirstTimeHomeBuyerRealEstate.com - Los Angeles, CA

Helping 1st time buyers and home sellers in LA!

I LOVE - LOVE - LOVE IDX Broker (they have indexable MLS) and pray that Realtor.com or Trulia are not coming after them.

Since having an unframed website and using IDX Broker, I went from only 280 indexed pages to having over 8800 Google indexed pages with customized title tags for each listing in only 3 and 1/2 months! Customized title tags, customized url links...

IDX Broker is awesome!

Nov 08, 2011 05:51 AM