NAR, Zillow, Trulia, Point2 NLS and Real Estate Brokers Find Common Ground
Written by: Frances Flynn Thorsen, e-PRO, SRS
May 25th, 2007 - 10:39 am
The National Assn. of REALTORS
Midyear Meetings marked an historic meeting at an NAR event -- a forum
that saw search engine giants, the Point2 NLS provider, and leading
real estate brokers sharing the spotlight on the same platform. Zillow,
Trulia, Point2 NLS, RealTown, and leaders from the ranks of REALTOR
associations and brokers met and discussed shared vision and goals.
The “Business
Technology & Information Systems Forum: Appreciate Your Assets”
dispelled long-held myths and beliefs about consumer web platforms
usurping the role of the real estate professional in the real estate
transaction. There was unanimous accord among the group that Internet
marketing platforms offer REALTORS opportunities to leverage their
listing assets in a variety of paid and no-cost venues that direct
consumer traffic back to the agents’ own web sites for follow-up and
lead management.
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(The panel is shown left
to right: Saul Klein, CEO of Real Estate Electronic Publishing Co.,
home of RealTown; Mark Lesswing, senior vice president of NAR; Bob
Hale, CEO, Houston Assn. of REALTORS; Sami Inkinen, founder and COO,
Trulia, Inc.; Tony Floyd, Senior Vice president, Prudential Georgia
Realty; Michael Koval, chief technology officer, Long and Foster Real
Estate; Brendan King, COO, Point2 Agent; and Jeff Somers, director of
partner relations, Zillow)
The real estate industry is at a
crossroads of communication between consumer-centric web platforms and
real estate professionals. There is a retinue of naysayers who are
preaching a tired gospel of fire and brimstone with dire warnings that
Web 2.0 community building platforms are designed to put REALTORS out
of business. Panelists at the NAR meeting offered a more educated view
of the Web media arena and set aside misguided fears with a focus on
increased marketing and advertising opportunities for real estate
professionals.
Execs at Zillow, Trulia, and Point2
NLS all affirmed REALTOR-friendly business models without an eye to
competition in the real estate sales arena.
“Trulia is a media company,” said
Sami Inkinen, Trulia founder. “We do not compete with real estate
professionals for a slice of the commission. We compete with Zillow and
Google and other web sites for advertising dollars.”
Trulia is one of the fastest growing
real estate media companies on the Internet, with more than one million
unique visitors each month. The site features broker-loaded listings
and community building tools for user interaction.
Inkinen says that Trulia offers
REALTORS a “safe environment” to promote their listings and that all
leads are delivered to the listing agent for follow-up. The company
follows an advertising based business model that does not rely on lead
generation fees.
Inkinen drives home the point that
Trulia is a marketing venue for real estate with a business model that
is driven by advertising, not lead generation. All prospects are driven
back to listing agents’ web sites without referral or lead generation
fees.
Jeff Somers of Zillow agreed with
Inkinen. Zillow has come under fire in some quarters of the real estate
industry for developing an online valuation tool, the Zestimate, that
is far from accurate in many market areas. Zillow execs’ previous foray
into Internet marketing at Expedia revolutionized the travel industry
with a Web-based buying platform that enables consumers to make travel
arrangements independent of travel agents. Many real estate
professionals are wary of similar disintermediation in the real estate
industry and leading REALTOR advocates have publicly voiced concerns
that Zillow and its counterparts are engaged in a conspiracy to put
REALTORS out of business.
Nothing could be further from the
truth, according to Somers.””Buying a home is not like buying an
airline ticket,” he said. “REALTORS will always have an important role
in the real estate transaction. “We have adopted an advertising
business model, not a lead generation model. We are not dipping into
the commission side of the transaction.
Zillow sees about four million
customers each month, with web pages built for about 50 million
properties in the United States and a target of 70 million pages,
according to Somers.
The Zillow exec echoed Inkinen’s
description of the firm as a media company, and said that its
competition is other media companies. He told REALTORS, “Your
competition is other REALTORS, not us.”
Point2 NLS Offers Web Solutions, REALTOR Advertising
The Point2 NLS offers REALTORS web
solutions and a comprehensive suite of real estate advertising options,
including 22 syndication options at real estate search engines and
online newspapers and magazines.
The Point2 NLS system is available
to licensed real estate brokers and agents only, said Brendan King, P2A
COO. “Point2 Agent is a software development company and a marketing
company. It is not a multiple listing service. It is a means for real
estate professionals to market their listing assets and offers a wide
range of choices in that regard.”
The Point2 NLS system is built with
an impressive array of predictive marketing software functions that
track a web visitor’s browsing habits and respond to their needs based
upon the types of properties searched, the characteristics of the
neighborhoods, etc. King says that these tools are the newest wave of
technological tools that help REALTORS meet consumer needs.
Bob Hale of the Houston Association
of REALTORS led the first major multiple listing service foray into
Googlebase last year. Hale dismissed fears about disintermediation
years ago. His instincts have paid off in Houston with the most highly
trafficked local REALTOR web site in the country, delivering more than
half a million leads to its agents last year.
“The user is the content and the medium is the message” – Marshall Mcluhan
Mark Lesswing, NAR’s tech chief,
shared his vision of a drastically changing Internet. He said that NAR
is sharing computer research to develop predictive marketing
functionality throughout the industry. Lesswing made four observations:
1. It is more than bombardment of information and data.
2. The Web has gestures.
3. Gestures can signal intent.
4. Intent can be cultivated.
He urged REALTORS, “Expand your
mind.” He shared his secret about innovation: “Don’t look for ‘additive
technology.’ Instead, look for ‘disruptive technology.’ Find new
applications for technology and implement them. “