In yet another example of technology being obsolete by the time it is implemented, “California's statewide multiple listing service has begun a rollout of Point2's real estate listing syndication and marketing program" Point2 announced today.
This follows on the heels of an excellent article published in the same publication (Inman News) recently, titled “Google’s place in Real Estate” by Andrea Brambila pointing out that Google, the absolute KING of the Internet, was abandoning its specialized real estate marketing (and Google Base) for several reasons, including “a lack of traffic on the sites.”
In a separate announcement a few weeks ago, Yahoo announced that it was assigning its real estate marketing efforts to another company. In other words, the three big players in Internet search marketing, Google, Yahoo and MSN have concluded-among other things—that portals do not bring enough traffic, that there is a “proliferation of property-search sites” that have marginalized the concept of a real estate portal, with very few exceptions.
Yet now, a company continues to publicize constructing yet another elaborate new MLS portal incorporating multiple MLS listing sites designed to reach—in its ultimate configuration—26,000 real estate professionals.
The Press Release received from Point2 also proudly stated: “As part of the agreement, the MLS will publish Realtors' listings to Point2's syndication network, which includes nearly 60 real estate consumer websites, search engines, classifieds and auction sites" Point2 said.
Breaking news flash: When you put a listing in MLS, it already is syndicated all over the web.
Three years ago, “syndication” was a great idea. Emphasis on ‘three years ago.’ Today, in the words of a leading agent/broker: “This syndication feature is meaningless.”
Someone needs to get current: portals are so yesterday
It is estimated that consumers (not real estate professionals) enter 880,000,000 real estate related searches monthly—just on Google! Yet Google has abandoned their real estate portal and has evidently decided to let Google search be their solution for the consumer. Simultaneously, they decry the proliferation of portals as 'muddying the market'. The simple fact is that CONSUMERS have no concept of which portal is which: they simply go to a search engine. With few exceptions, consumers ignore the “6o sites." It was a great idea that turned out to ignore consumer’s preferences: Consumers want to find what they want in the fewest steps; hence why search engines will always be the first place most people go to look for a home.
Four years ago, when portals were new, I wrote that they were devices designed to seek revenue from real estate agents for advertising and that they would not work. With the possible exception of Trulia, that holds true today, as well.
There are now so many portals out there that It's prompting a trend; organic search is being supplemented by more paid search and consumers are accepting paid search results more. That's good for Google and Yahoo, but it can be expensive for agents and brokers.
The truth is that 95% of agents fail at online marketing because they have listened to an entity that pays a royalty to NAR tell them how to place listings online and market them through their portal, realtor.com. This “Regional MLS Rollout” is just more of that management, more of that failed approach to online marketing, and a direct contradiction to what the major players in Internet marketing for REALTORS® have told us by their withdrawal from the business of portal marketing.
The truth is that the 5% of agents who succeed online average three times the earnings of those who do not succeed; the truth is that those who do succeed know the musts and do the work to match those musts with what they do.
Today, online marketing for REALTORS® is about being found online--be it through organic search or paid search, converting visitors to registrations, engaging those registrations and developing them into purchasers of real property. With respect, that isn’t done through MLS or syndication. It is done though precise targeting, strong marketing, and through follow-up immediately upon contact.
Any one telling you otherwise is trying to preserve the status quo. In the real estate business, the status quo may remain for realtor.com, but a 95% failure rate is not what agents and brokers want as their personal status quo. When Google and Yahoo admit that real estate portals are fragmenting the search exerience for consumers (i.e., sastisfaction), maybe it's time to consider a new approach. For certain, joining MLS together is of no interest to consumers, and that is the point: in Internet marketing; what realtor.com or the old guard wants has produced a realtor dissatisfaction rate of 95% with Internet marketing. Perhaps you need to stop looking to realtor.com for your Internet marketing solutions. They have the NAR endorsement all to themselves and have for years, yet 95% of agents are unhappy with the results. By any measure, something needs to change.
So, congratulations to those California MLS who have agreed to share listings. As more MLS do the same, some benefits will accrue, but not many of them will accrue to the agent in the field. Nor will it help an agent meet more buyers or sell more houses. The great MLS conglomeration is an idea whose usefulness left the station on the 2009 train.
Source: BrokerAgentSocial
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