An Embarassment of Riches
Observing online real estate often feels like I’m staring at a strange bizarro world.
Take for instance these two headlines today.
First, Zillow lands first MLS deal. (Guess they weren’t happy letting Trulia and Frontdoor hog the limelight over the last couple of weeks.)
At the same time, Connecticut statewide MLS launches public site.
Huh? Worlds are starting to collide. This space is moving so face it’s starting to make my head spin. And it’s starting to get complicated.
If you want to look for a home in any given Metro area (say, Portland) you now have the following choices:
- Individual agents IDX sites
- Brokerage web sites
- Public facing MLS web sites
- Web 1.0 intermediaries (Homegain etc)
- Regional players (Estately, et al.)
- National players (Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com etc.)
It’s great that there are so many options, but it’s all starting to feel like a little too much. Too much overlap. Too many options.
What’s even more bizarre is that all of these developments are coming at a time when tent cities are popping up in LA as housing refugees flee their foreclosed homes.
I’m not sure how this all going to shake out - but there’s bound to be some fall out and or consolidation in the online space. The only question is when and who will be the last ones standing.
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7 Comment(s)
2 Trackback(s)
- From Joel’s waiting for a listings shakedown, while… « 4realz.net | Mar 19, 2008
- From Do You Know What A “Tent City” Is? « Recurring Thoughts | Mar 20, 2008
Andrew | Mar 19, 2008 | Reply
whats even more bazaar is that the Zillow/MLSPIN deal was inked months ago and brokers have been syndicating listings to Zillow for a few months now. Announcement was a bit late. MLSPIN is my main MLS and I know all the techs over there. MLSPIN also puts listing on Trulia but I think Zillow was first to do the deal with them. Cant recall though. MLSPIN has 30 online partners and this number keeps on growing.
Lets Be Real | Mar 19, 2008 | Reply
joel, couldn’t agree more. my head is hurting and the poor average consumer has no idea where to turn, can’t remember where they saved that property, what site their realtor told them to go to, what service the seller said he was using to update the status, etc
the longer this housing slump, credit crunch, and general economic malaise, the more these options and start-ups will go away
basic economic theories still apply
it’s not like the Internet or those sites is creating more homebuyers - that’s still a natural number
1/2 the regional players go away - too redundant w/ MLS and they can’t make enuff $ w/ such a small footprint, even though they have better product experience
1/2 the web 1.0 sites go away - they are already long in the tooth, if they couldn’t make it big in the last boom, they surely won’t survive this bust
1/2 the newer national players go away - there’s not enuff consumer traffic to go around, there aren’t enuff brokers/agents/lenders to buy ads, so how do you even get to breakeven
1/2 the MLS go away - they realize they need to consolidate for their own efficiencies or else that annuity paycheck goes away
More broker sites get invested in and they stick around
More agent sites go up b/c they use the $ they used to on newspaper classifieds for this
that’s my story and i’m sticking w/ it
Overland Park Real Estate | Mar 19, 2008 | Reply
It is like a race to see who can be the first one stop shop for all listing across the U.S. I dont think there would have even been competition if Realtor.com would have been more consumer, agent, and web 2.0 friendly. For years they were less worried about content and too busy trying to get agents to spend $1000 to have a profile (on a website that is suppose to be for Realtors). In the mean time, web 2.0 passed them by.
Joshua Ferris | Mar 19, 2008 | Reply
I mostly agree with Lets Be Real except on one point.
I think the national players (Zillow, Trulia etc.) were simply riding the wave of ignorance while real estate agents and brokerages catch up. When I visit Trulia and Zillow now I am hard pressed to find anything exclusive or very impressive about their site. They look exactly like every other map-based IDX search sites with a gimmick that’s wearing thin.
HomeGain, HouseValues and Reply Inc. are about as good as dead. No real estate agent can afford to pay $500/month for leads that may or may not be real and such random leads are nearly useless anyway.
The MLS’ will merge into state wide public facing websites to save themselves and provide a better consumer experience.
Now this is where it gets interesting. I could definitely see the regional players and broker sites becoming one in the same. Agents might create their own sites but the vast majority of agents won’t be interested in doing anything in-depth or elaborate. After all, that’s what they expect of their brokers.
I think once the dust settles there will only be one major national player standing (my bet is on frontdoor.com), numerous regional players and state wide MLS sites a la HAR.com. Everyone else will go bye bye and good riddance I say. HouseValues was probably one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had with a company, ever. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone and you’re stupid for signing a contract with them after reading this.
Ed Kohler | Mar 20, 2008 | Reply
While there are more and more options, they’re not all improving on what we’ve had before. Only so many businesses have the expertise and resources to build something valuable.
David Faudman | Mar 25, 2008 | Reply
When it comes to actual closed sales, “Real Estate is a Relationship Game”. All this anonymous online home search stuff, while entertaining, does not amount to home sales. Real buyers with real money work with (skilled) real estate agents. There is no reason for them not to. So let’s stop focusing on “unique visitors” and start focusing on truly qualified homebuyers and homesellers.
William Nelson | Apr 6, 2008 | Reply
I couldn’t agree more…there are a zillion (zillown?) sites which all seem the same. That’s why we have developed housetribe.com, the first genuine web 2.0 housing site that I can see. We are truly user-driven, international, and focussed on interaction and *fun* rather than selling stuff as our primary goal. For us, MLS doesn’t exist. We aren’t going to import or export MLS listings. We’re just getting rolling and we hope to grow as a destination site for house junkies, kind of like ratemyspace.hgtv.com but not as lame, and gradually pick up for-sale and vacation rental listings as well.