Zestimate, Schmestimate; As Long As A Seller Loves His Realtor

Asked what she thought of her son's Oedipus Complex, A Jewish Mother responded: "Oedipus, Schmedipus; As long as a boy loves his mother.

The reports from the California Association of Realtors on Tuesday, 10/17/06, show: Jewish Mother jokes, Zillow bashing and Zillonoia are alive and well; and still running rampant among Realtors.  Big California Real Estate vs Little Beta Startup Zillow.  But Realtor.com better get in their jokes and laughs while they can.  There may soon be a new kid's book, "Zillow, The Little Beta That Could."  Zillow has an "I think I can" for every Realtor "I think they can't."

For years we Realtors have dealt with "Testimates" (Town Estimates or Assessments) and "Cestimates" (County Estimates or Assessments) very effectively.  We all know how low assessments are, when home owners sell their houses. And we know how high assessments are when home owners pay their taxes or challenge their assessments.  Are low, high or correct Zestimates, Assessments or other agent's CMA's really a problem we Realtors haven't dealt with for years and years?

So what's the NAR/Realtor.com/Move.com fear about an 8 month old Startup Internet Real Estate Media Company which doesn't advertise and can give most of our customers a Zestimate, in seconds?  (How many CMA's did you do in the last 3 seconds?)  Let's bash our Town's assessors and make jokes about their assessments.  Just don't let them know your name and address.

Allan Dalton, President of Realtor.com, should watch which beehives he's kicking.  Not all that many years ago the owner of the dominant Real Estate Brokerage in Rochester, NY said "People will never search for a home on the Internet."  Bill Gates even pooh-poohed the Internet and now Microsoft is playing catch-up with Google.  How soon before Realtor.com is playing catch-up with Zillow? 

The IDX genie is out of the bottle and the Department of Justice is blocking every attempt by the NAR, MLS's and Realtor.com to put the genie back in the bottle.

Will NAR, Move.com or Realtor.com be the first to market with Google-Like Real Estate Search?  You've got to be kidding.  They're too busy ripping off Realtors for outrageous sponsorship fees and services on our own Website, Realtor.com. Zillow, and other companies providing Google-Like Real Estate Search, will soon offer all Realtor.com services to all Real Estate agents for free. 

Imagine a User-Friendly National MLS.  Imagine a Realtor-Friendly MLS.  Imagine a User-Friendly National MLS posting all Realtor listings.  Imagine a User-Friendly National MLS posting all Realtor listings; for FREE.  A Free National MLS.  Free to home owners.  Free to home searchers.  Free to Realtors. Did anyone say "Zillow"?

Free the MLS!  Free the MLS!  Free the MLS!  A Realtor's dream.  An NAR, MLS and Realtor.com nightmare.

When you sell ads you're interested in 1) Eyeballs, 2) Traffic (Traffic, Traffic, Traffic vs Location, Location, Location), 3) First to market, and 4) All that virtual Real Estate at the top of the minds of home searchers.  When it comes to Google-Like Search for Real Estate and taking pages from the Google Playbook; Realtor.com doesn't come close to Zillow.com.  Zillow is the first to market with the Google Business Model, the Google Playbook, Google-Like Real Estate Search and Real Estate Search 2.0.  Zillow will soon be first in eyeballs, traffic and at the top of the mind of most Internet home searchers.

Google's stated vision is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". At an e-PRO (An NAR approved designation) Real Estate Seminar Saul Klein, a gifted presenter, said; in the past, Google and Realtor.com tried to work out a deal. Somehow Google's open vision for all information conflicted with Realtor.com's 1,000 page contract with NAR and their closed vision for listing information. 

NAR would rather fight the Department of Justice than make money selling our listing information to Google and the other Search Engines.  What Realtor would want his listings on Google, where everyone searches for everything?  What Realtor would want his listings searchable by Google, where everyone searches for everything?  What Realtor would want to be part of Google; in any way, shape or form?   THIS REALTOR!

What does Google know about selling houses?  Google just sell ads.  What if Google bought a Brokerage in every state?  GOOGLE-NOIA: the Realtor fear Google will buy Zillow and then a Brokerage in every state; change its name to GoogleMax; and take over all Real Estate in your hometown and all over the world.

Didn't Henry Ford start the NAR?  Didn't he say, "You can have any kind of Real Estate Search you want, as long as it's MLS."  Didn't Ford make the Edsel?  Is Realtor.com's rejection of Google and Zillow a "Model T Moment" or an "Edsel Moment"?  Ford just canceled the Taurus too.  What Ford did for buggy whips, Zillow and Google-Like Real Estate Search 2.0 will do to Realtor.com's, MLS-Friendly Search, and all other Real Estate Search 1.0.

Our listing information and our Real Estate Search are too valuable to trust to NAR, Move.com and Realtor.com.  If there's any joke here, it's  a joke on us, Realtors and home owners.

WebHomeUSAblog; The Blog of Real Estate Search Marketing

Comments

[Todd Tarson]

I tend to agree here on your MLS article. I'm currently arguing along this same line of reasoning as a Board member of a new regional MLS that has just gone online in my neck of the woods.

I'm not speaking for me though, directly. I'm instead speaking for the clients, mine or otherwise. I think sharing the MLS data with the better public search sites will enhance the MLS organization not detract from it.

I'm up against a protect, protect, protect mantra through from many brokers who love to say that the data is 'theirs'. I say BS, the data belongs to the clients. Put the data in places that most benefits the client and at the end of the day... we still get paid.

[Athol Kay]

I truely believe that at some point in the next 4-5 years something is going to turn into the "perfect monster" and eat something that ate something and produce a national listing system that is open to the public and completely free to use. My two choices to do this are Amazon and Google.

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