Zillow Acquisition of Trulia is Official According to Inman News

Oh gosh, yes, that sentence is very telling and disturbing.  It also explains why there might not be an FTC issue/antitrust issue here.

Oh, and this reminds me of Porter's 5 forces from B-school...this is why it's hard for realtors - very fragment market, so bargaining power is low vs. bargaining power of suppliers is high.  

- Debbie

Kathleen - Agents may have to pay up or prospect daily if they want to remain in the business.  Heaven knows, I'm the recipient of almost daily phone calls from ZaT in their quest for a bigger piece of the advertising pie agents provide.

Kathleen: One thing is for sure, we each need to have a separate marketing plan in place. Right now, we in real estate sales get so overwhelmed with those who want to sell us something.  At this point, I am going back to basics and that is to rely on myself and a niche or two that I'm building.

Hi Kathleen - I have always been a person who hopes for the best but prepares for the worst. The real estate industry is in for some major changes. It will be important for all of us to work together and separately. Just like Google changes its algorithms, changes with Zillow and Trulia will make for an interesting future. There are many ways to eat an elephant. However, you always start one bite at a time. Perhaps we have to set our sights on a different starting point.

Kathleen I hope I am wrong but my gut feeling is this is going to create problems.

For established agents who know how to prospect (and yes, do it daily) this isn't going to matter.  Brokerages like yourself can specifically say no to syndicating listings.  I approached ours about doing this and they felt it was biting the hand that feed many of our top producing agents.  That hand is fixing to smack the crap out of those agents, but hey, they seem cool with it.

Until big companies or local MLS boards stand up to this, the monster will only grow.  The thing that drives me batty is that buyers eat it up.  The comments about the merger show an angry public, outraged at what brokers charge and how "easy" our jobs are.  The merger, in my view isn't the big problem.  It's the consumerism that has made the merger a great business move.   Consumers hate REALTORS®.   THAT is a much bigger problem.

This brings me to the NAR bashing.  I HATE that I have to pay to belong to NAR, VAR and even my local PWAR if I want to be a real estate agent.  There is nothing special about being a REALTOR® other than raising your hand swearing to abide by ethics that I see REALTORS® in my market violate every day.  NAR does nothing to enhance our image and has become a truly worthless trade association that rallies the battle cries over political issues with which I largely disagree.  Being on the clean up crew of the last crash, I have to say, I am all for larger down payments and actually having to go through more stringent underwriting.

I am going to do what I can do.  I refuse to contribute to RPAC.  I refuse to pay anything to Zillow.  I am going to use my pen as my sword and continue to educate my local market about what make me the best real estate agent for their needs.  I don't need leads from the Z monolith to survive.  It's the other way around.  They need ME to survive and they aren't getting a penny from me.

Featured in the group:  BARTENDER, MAKE IT A DOUBLE.

More and more agents and mortgage brokers are losing control over oour industry and the quality to third party.  In the mortgage business it's companies lile lending tree who don;t lend anything.  They sell customer info to multiple lenders.  What a shame.  I'm not convinced Zillow grabbing Trulia is a good move.

Think you're right about needing more than a double.  :)

Kathleen~ I haven't given it much thought. I really don't believe there's going to be a huge impact, at least not immediately. Maybe I'm being naive.

Kathleen, just dropped by to read another good post from you.  Keep up the good work.

Hi Kathleen.  Just dropped by to see what your latest writings were about.  Good luck.