A National MLS, One Property At A Time

A National MLS is the Holy Grail of every relocation home buyer:

• Home buyer friendly/Easy to access
• Home buyer first/Realtor Second
• A listing of all properties (listed, new construction and FSBO) for sale
• A non-biased (not broker-biased) presentation
• A one-stop-shop for all local and national things Real Estate

The usual suspects:

• Realtor.com: The most listings, the most traffic, but too focused on the Realtor and not (and never) containing properties from non-Realtors, many builders and FSBOs.
• GoogleBase: Google has a map and directions for every property in the US, but Google Base has not yet engaged Google's Bank Account or mind set to put out a National MLS. Also, Google has the best "Street Address Search" of any of the big 3 Search Engines (or the Big One plus two)
• Yahoo Real Estate: Yahoo has the best General Search Engine Real Estate Search, but is loosing focus to it's own survival with its deal with Microsoft (Yahoo is still trying to cover their Bear Stern).
• MSN: MSN's only hope lies in its purchase of Yahoo, or dropping Bill out of the Top 10 richest in the world. The past great minds of MSN Real Estate are all at Zillow.
• Zillow.com: Zillow's approach to a National MLS is by giving a valuation to every property, whether it's for sale or not. Zillow still draws attacks, animus and venom from Realtors, who don't understand Zillow's business model. Realtors still feel Zillow is stealing their fire by offering a computer/algorithm generated valuation in 6 seconds (The Six Second CMA). Zillow is still openly vocal about not going after a National MLS (Brer Zillow: "Don't throw me in that briar patch").

In trying to Search Engine Optimize (SEO) my own Website, WebHomeUSA.com for Street Address and the Zip Code searches in the Greater Rochester (NY) Area, I found a curious thing: My competition wasn't Realtor.com, the big local brokers or even Zillow.com.

My competition, there, right under my nose and my radar screen, was Trulia.com:

• What if Trulia has the first 2 placements on the Google Address Search for every home for sale?
• What if Trulia has the first 2 placements on the Google Search for every part of the home address? (That's searches for: "123 Main St", "123 Main St, 14607", "123 Main St, Rochester, NY", "Main St, 14607", etc)
• What if Trulia has the first 2 placements on the Google Search for "homes for sale" and "Real Estate" in every Zip Code?

They usually do. At least in Rochester, NY.

By optimizing for Google with address-linked domain names and relevant page content, and by buying ads on Yahoo's Zip Code "homes-for-sale" searches, Trulia has cornered the search engine placement market for Street Address and Zip Code searches on the top 2 Search Engines. And for very little of their $17+ MM VC bucks.

It doesn't hurt Trulia's page placement that they're a Google Enterprise Map Partner. (One hand maps the other.) Trulia is often the only placement on the first page with a business model, selling Google Ads. Do you believe Google's Ad Relevancy Spiders are much different than their Content Relevancy Spiders? I don't think so.

By approaching Realtors with an advanced Google mapping function (not a previous Realtor service, like Zillow's home valuation) Trulia has already been able to capture a top ten Real Estate Search market share. And Trulia did it without alienating its biggest data suppliers and potential advertisers, Realtors.

My vote for the ultimate Holy Grail, National MLS provider: Trulia.com, The next "Little Search Engine That Could".

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

Comments

[Johnbeck Seminar]

Hey buddy,thanks man! That’s what I try to do… give people great content #1… and think about myself #2.It will always come back to reward you sometimes in ways you don’t expect.Let’s see how long we can keep it up there!

http://www.johnbeckseminar.com/

[New Jersey Real Estate]

Hi
YOur bolg is very nice. I have really learnt a lot from this blog thanks

[john beck]

i suggest you to try explore some of the real estate guru's like john beck , jim fleck and many more well i used john beck's amazing profits for buying and selling real estates .

[condo in philippines]

Hey Dude,

Nice blog!I want to learn more about the SEO thing...

-david