If you’re not a real estate professional who follows a ton of real estate blogs, then you’re probably not familiar with the brouhaha happening right now about listing syndication and IDX in the industry. I’ve been following the opinions very carefully because a TON of my business comes directly from my IDX. IDX is short for Internet Data Exchange; basically it’s an online relationship that allows agents and companies to share their listings online. When you search for a home on my Nashville Home Search page, you are able to see all the MLS-listed properties because of IDX. This means you don’t have to go from website to website to ensure that you’re seeing all the homes that are available. From a consumer standpoint this the pretty handy. From an agent standpoint, it allows you to provide a great service and establish yourself as a local expert.
The argument online is about a few different things. Much of it started when a ARG, small boutique brokerage in California, decided to pull their listings from syndication to Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com but NOT from IDX feeds. They did so with a well produced if wordy and overdone video. Most consumers (and many Realtors) don’t realize that sites like Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com, Hotpads, Vast, HomeFinder, et al. may not actually have ALL the home listings. This is because they get their home listings not from IDX, but from various other listing feeds that may not be as fresh. This can often lead to syndicators having bad or outdated information. Realtor.com is a different beast, and I’ll get to it in a moment, but for now let’s refer to these syndicators as TruZilia (a fabulous term coined by the best real estate blogger out there, Kris Berg of San Diego Castles).
Outdated info isn’t really the thing that irritates most agents. What bothers us is that the TruZilias of the world often take the data (that we provide to them for free) then they organize it on their sites and ask us agents to pay them a monthly fee to in order to have our own contact information branded next to our own listings. If we don’t pay the fee, the listing will either be buried at the bottom of the results or the listings will have a different agent’s contact info displayed next to it. This “other agent” will have likely paid the syndicator a hefty monthly fee to be shown in that particular neighborhood or zip code. This agent may have had their license 6 days and they most certainly have not ever seen the interior of the home being “showcased.” As a consumer are you served well by this arrangement?
For other agents (like myself) the rub isn’t just bad data and monthly fees, it’s that these syndicators are hogging up the Google SEO juice. When a potential consumer makes a search engine inquiry for just about any real estate related term in just about Any City, USA the first page of results will be from TruZilia-ish sites. It’s a bit much to compete with. There are agents out there who DO compete (see my idol Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy) but the average Joe Realtor cannot compete without having someone on their team who blogs and works on SEO as a full-time position. As Realtors, we already wear a lot of hats, and “online tech consultant” isn’t another one that most want to take on.
To many in the industry, this kind of thing in tantamount to extortion. Pay the fee, or be blackballed. Of course, we don’t HAVE to sign up. Personally, I pay the fee to most of the major-player sites. I do so unhappily and begrudgingly. But the writing is on the wall; buyers like and use these sites, and sellers want their listings to be shown there.
To get back on point, much of the online discussion is about pulling listings from TruZilia syndicators. A handful of brokers have already done this. Many think that others will soon follow. Personally, I’m having a hard time deciding which side of the issue I stand on. I would LOVE to see TruZilia out of the way, but I most definitely would NOT like to see IDX go the way of the dinosaurs. After all, I earn clients from my IDX site. The two beasts are similar, but still quite different. Let me try to clarify:
You see, only people and companies who are affiliated with a specific MLS are allowed to procure true IDX feeds. We do this as gatekeepers who want to control our own destiny. It is really, really easy to envision a scenario where agents lose control of the data and become unnecessary to the situation of selling a home. Think of the way Expedia, Priceline, and Orbitz have disrupted the travel agent industry. This could happen in real estate. Whether you agree with National Association of Realtors (aka NAR) being a gatekeepers to this data, isn’t really the issue. It is the way it is. We ARE NOT going to give TruZilia a direct IDX feed…
However, we do give this feed to Realtor.com so let’s turn our attention there for a moment. Personally, I think a stronger Realtor.com is the key to taking back our listings. Most, if not all of our 900 regional MLSs give their data to them every 15 minutes or so. The data is reliable and current. However – Realtor.com is also in the greed game. They charge agents or brokers additional fees to show ALL the photos and have their own contact info on display. For a little back-story, in 1996 when the interwebs were still relatively new players in real estate, NAR made a deal with the mega-company MOVE, Inc. to manage Realtor.com effectively making Realtor.com a kind of national MLS. For years they were THE leaders in home search use, but Zillow and Trulia slowly encroached with better designs and innovations. Realtor.com market share has been falling consistently year-after-year.
SO. Here is my solution. Stop the feeds to Zillow and Trulia and the other sites with bad data that gouge, trick, and shame agents into deceiving relationships. Take the $400 dues we are all paying each year and reinvigorate Realtor.com with beauty and innovation. Showcase ALL 20 of the MLS photos and have the listing agent’s contact info next to each property. AND DO THIS FOR FREE. Can’t manage it for free? THEN RAISE OUR ANNUAL DUES. Realtor.com doesn’t have to be everything to everyone. Zillow has an amazing “Zestimate” program which estimates home values based on tax and other data. It’s a fab tool. Trulia boasts a wonderful consumer forum and does amazing things with sales price trends and heat maps.
A proper marketing campaign could restore faith in the REALTOR® brand online AND get the eyeballs back to the website that best serves consumers AND agents (think the Chrysler commercials of home-ownership… it could be epic). But stop the insanity of listings online and take control of the data we give you. Allowing others to encroach is dangerous to our livelihood and a disservice to our clients and consumers.
What say you all?
I believe that Truzilia have gone to far in pushing for profits. This is the push back. Personally realtor.com is not something I think should be made “beautiful” and used and given all that power. It is not owned by NAR and is also making a profit off of agents and it is possible the hugh amounts they charge precipitated some of the push back as well. I think Zillow and Trulia are out of control and forgot some basic stuff such as who gives them the information.
Miriam, I hear you. But I feel that the consumer will require something more comprehensive than our outdated MLSs currently provide. My feeling is that Realtor.com would be a better fit in this niche since we at least have a voice in it.
Miriam – Brad from Zillow piping in here. We’re a very consumer-centric site with more than 100,000,000 homes (including listings) that have data on or about them and in January, more than 30,000,000 unique users visited our site including via our mobile apps.
Consumers and agents come to Zillow for a variety of reasons. They’re looking for information and data regarding other items too. Loan info, neighborhood data and stats, what the home around the block sold for, and sometimes it’s just to find an agent like you.
So how are we or can we be “out of control?”
We provide a free platform where any real estate professional has the option of having a free profile to promote themselves, their choice of a listing feed to the site, and direct consumer contact at no cost what so ever to the agent? Sure we offer some paid advertising spots, what site doesn’t?
Out of control? Yes, but in a good way if you ask me!
I think you might be missing that we are only trying to provide service(s) for the consumers and the agents, both of which we are trying to connect using our many tools, products, and services offered on our site. You know me well Miriam, and you also know my number so if you ever need to reach me about ANY issues or concerns, I always have been and am still only a phone call away. 🙂
It feels like more and more brokers may start withholding their listings from the syndicators this year. This may be more bark than bite at the end of the day. Could R.com step up and do all the things that Trulia and Zillow do? Maybe… but probably not. One thing’s for sure – innovation from Trulia and Zillow has raised the bar for everyone. R.com developed a fantastic mobile app which would have been impossible without fierce competition from the syndicators.
Bruce, in a way I like the idea of withholding, but it won’t be a welcome move from consumers. They too will start to find the syndicators as frustrating as we now do. Have you looked at consumer comments under the ARG video on YouTube? They pretty much all are reacting negatively. I too would find it hard to justify the position in a listing presentation.
You’re right of course about the R.com app. Mobile use will grow and grow. Question, do you think mobile apps need to find listings on a radius map? Do you think QR codes or URLs on a sign could be just as effective?
For me, the most awesome part of mobile apps is to “find listings near me”. I have the r.com app on my iPhone and use it quite a bit (I should start using my own DS mobile app, shouldn’t I?).
Personally, I’ve always thought that QR codes are gimmicky — too new a technology for me to adopt. I always create a dedicated website and put the URL on a sign rider. That way, consumers can get pics, pricing, detail and a video if they see the sign.
Hi Steph – Brad from Zillow here:
It is free for any listing agent to receive prominent placement and leads from their listings as long as they’ve created a “free” profile on the Zillow site. If the listing agent has never taken this step, their
contact information is still on every page including the listing source that is feeding our site their listing.
Once a listing agent creates a free profile on Zillow, their profile picture, contact link and rating, if applicable, appear at the top of the buyer’s agent list located on the right hand side of the screen next to their sellers property. This also means that in addition to appearing as the listing agent, the agent now receives four “free” placements on the page instead of just the one. All this is FREE!
I think it confuses the issue when people make broad comments about the selling of leads across all real estate sites. With Zillow, the contacts (leads) from consumers are FREE for any agent who creates a
profile and WANTS to get contacts from their listings. This is a different program than advertising on
the site as a Premier Agent or paying for ad space to promote a business, product, or service.
Hopefully this will be helpful for you and your readers. There is a couple great articles that explain this in detail here: How Zillow works with Listing agents – http://www.zillow.com/blog/2012-02-03/how-zillow-works-with-listing-agents/ and another relative post to this topic is The Importance of Strategic Distribution here: http://www.zillow.com/blog/2012-01-30/the-importance-of-strategic-distribution/
If I can help answer any questions or address any other concerns, please feel free to contact me anytime. Thanks.
Steph — I have heard many, many agents lately express your sentiments about Realtor.com being the answer, and I don’t disagree. Alas, I don’t see it happening. Realtor.com is not a member benefit nor will it be. It’s a for-profit cash cow now, and the “extortion” arguments apply to them equally. The only difference is in the data. Theirs comes from feeds, so it is rather pure.
Brad – “It is free for any listing agent to receive prominent placement and leads from their listings as long as they’ve created a “free” profile on the Zillow site.” Prominent? Really? Pick any listing and show me how being thrown into a stockpot of paid agent ads (with a grayed-out “listing agent” tag that is virtually indistinguishable from the “buyer’s agent” tags) is prominent. The presentation is intended to confuse, in my opinion. If not, then why is their a default agent selected next to properties with no listing agent displayed yet no default selection when the listing agent is present?
Kris, I wonder what NAR thinks about these shenanigans? I’d love to hear an official response. I don’t see why R.com can’t still be profitable for MOVE (based on our dues NOT on upgrades). High user volume that is currently going to other syndicators seems like the only way the knock TruZilia off it’s perch and R.com is the only player I can see with a shot at doing it.
Hello ~ Intresting article. Thank you. Stumbled across it because I am a seller looking for a listing agent for a home in Williamson county NOT using sites like zillow, etc. They have no idea what is going on in our cities and counties. If you are not using them, please contact us at the email above.
Annie, I’m afraid you wont find ANY agents in the Realtracs MLS who don’t use syndication sites. This is because our MLS is affiliated with something called Point2 that automatically sends all the basic listings to the syndicators. A brokerage as a whole can opt-out but an individual agent cannot. So far as I know, there aren’t any brokerage who have opted out. It would be big news through the grapevivne if someone did.
However, I just looked at my Zillow account and there does appear to be a way to “cancel” listings that are automatically pulled….
Hi Steph, if r.com had been doing the job for us, TruZila would not have ever happened in the first place. I don’t pay either for anything, but at least I can be found on Zillow and Trulia and they offer more free to agents than r dot com.
Question? Do you get your DS from Realtrac’s or on your own?
Exactly Missy. It’s like @Kris said below – Realtor.com isn’t a “member benefit – it’s a cash cow” but it SHOULD be a member benefit and it COULD be if they’d fix it…
@Missy Caulk I just noticed that I didn’t answer your question. I pay for DS on my own. It is an approved vendor for Realtracs- our MLS doesn’t offer us a complimentary IDX system.
Hi Steph, your are right in saying it is hard to get a thorough understanding of this issue. Rob Hahn in his predictions for 2012 said it would be the dominating theme among firms and franchisers this year and so far he has been right. I have tried to follow this for a while and in fact it was the key issue (in my opinion) at the NAR Mid-year conference in 2011 It is not understood at the grass roots level among agents and it is likely to be decided well before many even find out it “has been decided” I, like you, am not sure which side I am on, although I think that since the public has already been privy to the franchised information that there is no way to “take it back” and that IDX as a proprietary source will slowly integrate into syndication. As far as the IDX claim that their information is more credible or reliable, I don’t believe it. I spent fifteen minutes this morning looking over comps for an upcoming listings that I have have (in a development that I have been active in for years) and found incorrect HOA fees, management companies, wildly incorrect square footage, misleading pictures, and in description of amenities (not to mention the apparently ignored flood damage issues that I know occurred in 2010) IDX is only as reliable as the agent’s input, and that I don’t want to hang my hat on! Good post though!
Great seeing you yesterday Paul!