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The real estate business is no longer about selling real estate.

Real Estate Broker/Owner with Richard Weisser Realty

December 03, 2013 12:46 PM

Over the last decade or so I have observed a paradigm shift in the real estate business/

The real estate business is no longer primarily focused on the purchase and sale of real estate.

Instead, it is focused on the sale and repackaging of real estate data and its resale back to the brokers that generated the information in the first place.

Many of these resellers purport to have the consumer’s interest at their core. But the fact of the matter is that the real estate buying consumer is NOT a revenue source for these remarketers. A consumer’s contact information is nothing more than a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder.

Ask any real estate agent, and they will tell you about the dozen or so calls they get a week from some salesperson from the latest and greatest supersite ready and willing to sell any zip code for a price.

And apparently, a lot of them are willing to pay it!

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Ron Aguilar

Gateway Mortgage Group - Saint George, UT

Mortgage & Real Estate Advisor since 1995

A lead is completely worthless until you turn them from suspects to prospects.

I have been buying internet leads since the year 2000 and the ability to nurture and incubate

this data is the critical element. good luck out there...

Dec 05, 2013 12:14 AM

Kimo Jarrett

Cyber Properties - Huntington Beach, CA

Pro Lifestyle Solutions

Nothing unusual about this issue, it's simply outsourcing your marketing to a third party and if it's effective, why not? Either way, the work to produce a seller or buyer requires work, so if not you, someone else, right? You still have the freedom to choose who to retain or control your cost of marketing regardless, don't you?

Dec 05, 2013 12:23 AM

Paula Hathaway, REALTOR, LBA

Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Southampton, NY

...A Local Expert in all The Hamptons

As you already know Richard, I have had issues with my own real estate with the two top syndicated sites...and the war continues--now I get calls from all manner of these "re-packagers" and it is so misguided! I hang up immediately but the irritant remains as I see fellow agents, even agents who I share co-exclusives with, as they give away their/my listings and the valuable content to these sites---the big ones don't even care that they damage homeowners by purporting to know prices of locales they are totally unfamiliar with. I have a $5.5 listing that I share with an idiot who puts it on Zillow only to be told that "the value of your home has decreased to $4,100,000"!!! These sites don't have a clue and in fact do more harm with their supposed knowledge about certain locations. How do you explain to the owner that a buyer has said "according to Zillow I should be able to buy this house for $4 mil?" Great post and important topic for all of us to be aware of.

Dec 05, 2013 12:34 AM

Dolores "Dee" Mauriello

Keller Willaims - Wayne, NJ

Realtor, Homes For Sale Wayne NJ

With Internet and IDX we are encountering many changes in the way we do business. This is here to stay so we just have to work with it.

Dec 05, 2013 12:55 AM

Tni LeBlanc, Realtor®, J.D.

Mint Properties, Lic. #01871795 - Santa Maria, CA

Tenacious Tni (805) 878-9879

Yes, buyer and seller contact information is being bought sold and negotiated in our industry. It is frustrating when you see entities trying to insert themselves between the agent and the consumer and then demand a fee for rubbing shoulders. Even more frustrating when they employ tactics, such as using old and inaccurate information to attract consumers. Tactics that we as licensed individuals cannot use.

I got a call from one of these places yesterday (as I do most days) and they wanted a minimum of $250 per month to advertise in a zip code.

Dec 05, 2013 01:43 AM

Liane Thomas, Top Listing Agent

Professional Realty Services® - Corona, CA

Bringing you Home!

Between phone calls and emails, I am solicited several times a day. I don't mind calls from those I have met or done business with.

Dec 05, 2013 01:47 AM

Harrison K. Long

HomeSmart, Evergreen Realty - Irvine, CA

REALTOR , GRI, Broker associate, Attorney

It's true that some business enterprises these days get between the buyer/seller and his/her real estate professional - which is "intermediation" - and not illegal. However, doing business that way can result in softening of real customer service, which requires the real estate agent to focus on promoting and protecting the interest of the client/customer.

Dec 05, 2013 02:33 AM

Gene Riemenschneider

Home Point Real Estate - Brentwood, CA

Turning Houses into Homes

What concerns me is how Google and other search engines seem to favor these type of companies rather than organic companies that provide direct services. To some extent AR is one of those companies, but here I feel like a partner.

Dec 05, 2013 02:53 AM

Jordon Wheeler

The Jordon Wheeler Group - Fairburn, GA

J W Group Real Estate Sales and Service

Hey Richard,

Just got a call today from a guy with web app pitch. Sometime it is just too much.

Best of GREAT success to you always sir!

Dec 05, 2013 03:18 AM

Bryan Robertson

Los Altos, CA

I'd like to see a data platform where brokers and agents can use their data at no cost to them. If we had that, we'd all be better off.

Dec 05, 2013 03:34 AM

Anne Lok

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Toronto Realty - Toronto, ON

Toronto Modern Real Estate

I am also getting calls from private trainers who claim to have helped "Superstar Agent X" rise to fame, and asking if I would be interested to be trained.

Dec 05, 2013 03:34 AM

Rob Z

Keller Williams Buffalo Northtowns - Buffalo, NY

Let me Help You

The calls can be overwhelming from these companies and trying this or that, and they're not asking for a small amount of money from us to be a "Featured Agent". And if average consumer knew what these companies did, they might consider other sources, but ofcourse they show up first on Google!

Dec 05, 2013 04:58 AM

Ron Buck

The Ron Buck Group - Laguna Niguel, CA

Associate RE Broker at Keller Williams Realty

Richard, So true. It also strikes me as funny that CNBC and other business shows are always interviewing the Trulia's and Zillow's but never NAR. Of course I am happy to pay my money to farm, get listings and give all the leads to the online giants to be sold back to me. NOT.

Dec 05, 2013 05:58 AM

David Demangos

Keller Williams Realty Carmel Valley / Del Mar - San Diego, CA

REALTOR

The sales pitches are never ending from re-selling us our own stuff.

Dec 05, 2013 09:53 AM

Marte Cliff

Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID

Your real estate writer

That's the thing - some are willing to pay the price.

Dec 05, 2013 10:33 AM

Marte Cliff

Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID

Your real estate writer

That's the thing - some are willing to pay the price.

Dec 05, 2013 10:33 AM

Sandra Paulow

Aspen Properties, Inc. - Pinetop Lakeside, AZ

REALTOR, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR

It makes me wonder if the syndication of listing information is really in our best interests. Multiple calls every week from Z & T & RDC wanting to sell my own information back to me at a high price. It is disgusting that the consumer is so sure they can be do it yourself buyers that they are willing to sacrifice true service for a massive amount of online information that is often flawed. Then when the finally do contact an agent somehow it is our responsibility that sites like this that we have no control over are providing flawed information. Is it time for us to just say no to syndication of our information? Perhaps even time to revamp the MLS system and make it what it was intended to be, a sharing of information between professionals, not the world?

Dec 06, 2013 01:52 AM

Anonymous

Marge Bare

I couldn't agree more. What's worse, is the agents sit and complain, but when they call they just do it anyway. The one that really gets me right now is all the agents in my office that are dutifully giving Trulia and Zillow ALL their info! One of the assistants in my office was complaining that he had just spent 2 days inputting the last 10 years of his agent's sales, because Trulia wanted him to! No way am I giving them that information! If they can get a hold of it another way, pay for it, whatever, okay I can't control that. But spending resources to blindly hand the info over to them? Please, let's all stick together and stand up for our profession. Myself and the agents that went before me over the last century put too much into building up the profession, to have this shift take hold. I hope its not too late, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

Dec 06, 2013 03:28 AM

#100

Marge Bare

Premiere Property Group - Portland, OR

Broker

Dec 06, 2013 03:32 AM

John DL Arendsen

CREST "BACKYARD' HOMES, ON THE LEVEL General & Manufactured Home Contractor, TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments - Leucadia, CA

Crest Backyard Homes "ADU" dealer & RE Developer

Has this post been around already? It looks very familiar.

Dec 08, 2013 12:41 PM

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