A Realtor-Friendly National MLS. Zillow Just Got Harder To Hate.

Just when I thought it was safe to Zillow hate, Zillow bait, Zillow bash and Zillow trash again; Zillow comes out and gives agents free listings and free advertising.  While NAR, the MLS's, HomeStore and Realtor.com were busy changing names and figuring out how to get more fees and charges out of Realtors, Zillow goes and gives us something for free. 

Zillow must like us more than the NAR does.  Maybe Zillow is going to get our personal Agent and Broker data and try to sell us stuff; just like we do to our clients.  We won't buy, even if it's free; Right?  There's no such thing as a free lunch; and Zillow must want to eat our free lunch; Right?

Protectionism toward listing data, concealing data on the Hidden Web, and the "Hide our data, they will have to come" attitudes of Real Estate 1.0 are dead.  Long live the open data, open relationship and "easy-open" search of Real Estate 2.0.

Google's stated vision to: "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful", is directly contradictory to Real Estate data protectionism and the Hidden Web.  Zillow's unstated vision may well be to: "organize the world's Real Estate information and make it universally accessible and useful, even for Realtors."

Why would a company give us Realtors something our own organizations don't give us?  I never heard of a favored step-child?  Does this make Zillow the Realtor-Friendly National MLS?  Does this make Zillow the Google of Real Estate?

Even before Zillow launched in 2/06, the technophobic, head-in-the-sand, buggy-whip wielding Realtors were worried they'd be disintermediated, just like travel agents.  What is much clearer now is the ones in Real Estate who will be disintermediated are any Real Estate 1.0: Agent, Broker, Local Association, Local MLS and National MLS not embracing the technology, philosophy, business models and Playbooks of Web 2.0 and Real Estate 2.0.

Realtors can fight Google, the Google Playbook and Web 2.0; and Zillow, the Zillow Playbook and Real Estate 2.0.  But our customers, our clients and soon almost all home buyers and sellers are already there.

Now it's my choice to have Google, Zillow and the other Search Engines on my team.

GOT NEXT!

Happy Searching.

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