The MLZ will be a one-stop-shop for everything Real Estate. A veritable Real Estate Walmart with all the data, tools and contacts you need to do everything, and for the right price. You won't have to have "a brother-in-law in Real Estate" to get the best help or the most current information. Not that the "brother-in-law in Real Estate" thing ever helped anybody anyway. You won't have to leave the MLZ to buy or sell a house.
The MLZ will be strategically positioned for the eventual and inevitable paperless and virtual home sale. The MLZ will cover all residences in the US, just like Zillow does now. All homes for sale will be on the MLZ, making it bigger. All MLZ information will be free, paid for by advertising. A home buyer or seller won't have to give their name, address, phone number or email address to get information. The MLZ will be the "top-of-the-mind" site for Real Estate Search, (as Google is for text based general search and Technorati is for blog search).
When anyone first thinks to buy or sell a house, they'll think MLZ first. The MLZ will provide a single unifying property data platform, the same way Microsoft provided the unifying business software platform for computers. The MLZ won't be the biggest or the best. The MLZ will be the biggest and the best.
You've heard of email and G-mail. Soon Z-mail will instantly send all the new MLZ home listings to home buyers in their target area. Realtors will be able to advertise and sponsor these feeds. Z-mail will also notify all participating agents and brokers about all new listings in their area.
The Internet experience is 24/7, Interactive, customizable, and features 100% of the homes for sale. The Internet doesn't have the short shelf life of the newspaper or the once yearly publication schedule of the Yellow Pages. No wonder more and more people, almost 75% by last count, start their home search on the Internet.
For Realtors and all other home sale related businesses, Zillow will be "The Site" to advertise on. Realtors will want to be where the most home byers and sellers are. The only Real Estate Zillow will sell directly is the ad-space Real Estate around its property information. And that ad-space Real Estate can be auctioned over and over to Realtors, Lenders, Inspectors, Movers, Contractors, Home Insurance Companies, etc. Advertisers will target by location, price, feature and stage of sale, down to the individual home.
For years advertisers in the home sale advertising space have played second fiddle to Realtors . No more. Advertisers will bid for Zillow's virtual Real Estate on equal footing with Realtors. Zillow's ads and pages will change to reflect the stage of sale, going from Pre Sale (Just Listeds) to Pending Sale to Post Sale (Just Solds) with varying advertisements.
Zillow ad space is ideal for Realtors because the buyers and sellers come to Zillow when the Realtors want them most, between their start-to-look and their contract to buy. After the contract is signed, the buyers and sellers will stop coming. It will be up to Zillow to come up with a way to keep home buyers and sellers coming back for the other advertisers who, after the home sale contract is signed, are suddenly more interested in Zillow's space.
Zillow will provide Counties and other property recording agencies with the online software to rapidly upload and store new property information. This process will help nationally standardize the property information platform. Zillow will no longer have to pay the 10 property information companies for their outdated information. Zillow will get the data on their own platform; organize, process and analyze it and resell the information.
Real Estate is about to become a "Brave New World" for all those brave enough.
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