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21 Comments on ARG & the Syndicators: The Rest of the Story
You wrote
This might be one of the most important discussions for real estate professionals and nobody interested? On real estate site, nobody wants to talk about real estate?
Big discussions of this on Facebook last night in two or three real estate groups I belong to. I am thinking maybe that is the place to discuss real estate, rather than AR. I am about fed up with my ActiveRain LOCAL posts getting crappy "great post thanks for sharing" comments but when I post something for peers, "crickets."
This post has had plenty of clicks. I just must have wrote it wrong to get comments.
148 clicks on AR 36 clicks on the short url.
It is an interesting story to me. I am not sure this has not in some ways changed my view on RTZ syndication being a necessary evil.
I am not sure I really believe that Zillow employees contacted ABG clients. That just seems so bizarre. Of course this is the most dramatic of the brokerages that have stopped syndication of their listings. Edina and Shorewest are a lot bigger but did it much less dramatically than ARG.
Lots of discussion of at least one ARG listing going on Zillow because of the flyer program the listing agent / brokerage used. The property as a for sale was removed from Zillow on April 30.
Maureen - oops, I keep forgetting about the rest of the world simply because i am not there. But I think I know why there are no comments.
I think it is because of the length of the video. Not the first time I notice that members skip long videos, and 10 min is long.
I have seen a few times where there was a blog and a video, and comments were to the post, and it was clear that they did not watch the video.
I am a bit surprise you say that maybe FB is a place to discuss real estate rather than AR. If this is true, then AR is doing something very wrong.
10 minutes is long.... but the number of people watching the video has gone up. Not that it is people from my post. He was on NPR yesterday morning. This video has been posted a lot in it's short life. Probably not as viral as the video three months ago but.....people are talking about it.
Groups on Facebook... that's where people are discussing it, real estate groups.
Well, Maureen, I just wanted to stop in and mention, "Great post."
Or, more to the point, I watched the entire video, which is saying a lot for me and a 10 minute video.
Mentioned to a co-worker that syndicating via Zullia is giving away our work, giving away the efforts of CMA, photography, expenses, late night consultation, etc, so that Zullia can sell the generated business to someone else, to sell some other property.
But, the barn door has been torn off the hinges, and consumers want to know if the listing will be posted on Zillow and Trulia, whether it delivers a single inquiry or not.
"and consumers want to know if the listing will be posted on Zillow and Trulia, whether it delivers a single inquiry or not."
Sellers?
And buyers obviously hang out there...
I go back and forth on whether they are pure evil or not.
Co-worker asked me if I gave them money...
LOL
I have never given Trulia or Zillow any money.
This was my first exposure to this issue. Have not been on the blogeshpere lately and happened to stumble across this post via Linked-IN of all places.
I watched the entire video. He makes a lot of very good points. It would be interesting to see if this issue could ever catch fire within the industry, but I know it never ever will. You see, people are greedy. The minute something like this would begin to take hold, there would be an equal, if not greater amount of agents/brokers who would assume that less competition from the "Zulia" subscribers would be a good thing for them. In other words, GREED will keep things in check and a level of status quo. It's just the way it is, however I applaud this guy for taking a stand.
For the record, I do subscribe (pay money to) Zillow for one zipcode in my service area. I did get some decent calls and had a few showings, but no actual business as a result to date. The one thing that I do feel very uneasy about is the way the site is designed to deceive by making the public believe the agents appearing next to thse listings are actually their listings. Not necessarliy a great foundation to build a product or service on.
I may do as this broker suggested and choose not to send a handful of my listings to Zulia, just to see what happens. Will have to make sure I do not promise or commit that these listings will appear on these sites whether it be implied or expressed verbally or in writing.
Great post. I too am surprised by the lack of comments.
His first video the real estate world went crazy. If this 3 months that would have been the beginning of February. I think the first video went viral on a Friday night when Inman sent out a breaking news alert email. I did NOT look on Friday night but Saturday morning the RE.net on FB, Twitter were buzzing.
Shorewest in Milwaukee withdrew their listings very quietly. When Edina in MN made an announcement there was a buzz. Edina is huge.
What Howard Hanna did just after this was interesting. They made a deal for their agents to be featured on their listings. Kind of your "In other words, GREED will keep things in check and a level of status quo. It's just the way it is, however I applaud this guy for taking a stand." Not that I am saying it is greed. It is good business smart. Different.
Real Living was an advertiser on Zillow the day it launched in 2006. I know I was shocked but I bet it was a smart move traffic wise. Then Zillow announced they were not just an advertising site with a crappy zestimate gizmo, they wanted our listings. We were asked not to put our listings on Zillow. Six months? A year? later we loved Z again and sending a feed. For the longest time we were just sending one photo. Hopes that people would click through for more?
I am not sure that some buyers could be broken of the Zillow or Trulia addiction. RZT get lots of traffic.
Maureen - I just found this through LinkedIn, as Bob did. Why do we have to find this post on LI and learn it is being discussed on FB but not AR?
With respect to the video you posted, I have not watched it - yet - because I am not in a quiet place where I can do so. That may be why others have not commented also - I don't like to comment on something until I've seen it or read all the comments already posted in a blog.
What I can say is that this is an excellent post and the topic has raised a lot of (somewhat) heated discussion. I will stop back after I view the video, probably late tonight.
Suggested!
Diana Front page of AR right now Tammy Lankford wrote a post about syndication and it got featured.
here's the url:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/3231946/syndication-is-good-for-my-sellers-i-embrace-it
Okay...I finally watched the video (at least most of it between interruptions) and it was a long 10 minutes. It probably would have impressed me more if it had been shorter and to the point. I must say that I find it rather unprofessional and in poor taste to publicly bash syndicators in general and Zillow in specific. While he did raise some interesting points that provide for a good discussion, the manner in which it was done made me wonder about the motives and for doing so - especially since it was noted above that other larger brokerages have done the same but much less dramatically...
While I don't know any agent who would not love to handle both sides of the transaction, I would much rather have 50%of something than 100% of nothing. And I am still amazed at the lack of comments here...
P.S. I would love to hear what RZT each have to say on this subject in response to his allegations.
I think the allegations, if you are talking about the syndicator contacting seller, those are just about Zillow. I am going to listen again... I should go find the January 2012 video too.
Our whole MLS board punted Realtor.com when they got started for inaccurate data...but we ended up signing back up. It is stupid that we give them our data so we can pay them to advertise there but until we get more boards or our industry as a whole on board with brillant technology achievement, we will continue to be ridiculously stupid about what we are doing. I am fighting an issue with my local board right now who has taken away my ability to provide statistics to my customer base. Brilliant! Don't you think!?
Shannon What sort of statistics? Why do they think a member should not provide them?
Does your board have a public facing site, provide info to consumers? Allowing them to search for homes?
I don't remember Realtor.com having bad data, in the way that Z & T and smaller sydicators do but I do remember having a home listed the seller and I could not find. The house is in Franklin County but the zip code is a community up the road in Delaware County, so the home was listed in Delaware County. Our area is confusing enough on it's own we don't need help.
IMO, I think serious buyers come through the MLS. Zullia and Realtor.com are for window shoppers. The MLS is for buyers. The myth of marketing all over the internet doesn't make any buyer buy. Glad I found this.
Judy Thanks "come through the mls" does your mls have a consumer facing search function and the buyers reach an agent through the mls? Or by "through the mls" do you mean the brokerages or agent's idx on the broker or agents website?
Maureen - Our MLS does not provide a search function for consumers unless an agent sets it up. Big brokerages often have consumer search sites via IDX. I receive leads through my company's site in this way. I personally don't have IDX on my website. Once I establish a personal relationship with a client, they get a customized search and listings via email. Sometimes they search outside my search but usually come back to me to get more information.
Thanks!