RealSeekr Partners with RealEstateShows & MLBroadcast, Hits 2.5M Listings!

Lani, we’re very happy to be joining MLBroadcast in partnering with RealSeekr! We think it’s a win for everyone involved.

Awesome news, awesome scoop, awesome site.

Congratulations Gia and Grant. Perhaps the Hula Hoops powered this recent good news?

We are absolutely thrilled to be working with RealEstateShows and MLBroadcast!

@Matt those Hula Hoops came in handy since we’ve been chained to our computers for weeks. 😉

Gia & Grant (aka G & G 😉 )

Sounds like a great venture… Can’t wait to check it out!

Hugs all around to everyone involved, I think you are all great people and this sounds like a good marriage of technologies. However, I’d love to hear some response to #6 and #8 above. Does the public use RealSeekr? Any numbers to compare vs T, Z & R?

Anyways to expand on Bob’s comment about why we need this. More important to me is why should I be excited about a national portal getting all it’s listings from an IDX feed provided by my competition?

If I search for listings in Arlington Heights all the listings are provided by one Chicago agent. His contact information is all over all my listings and every other agents…how is this something any agent should get excited about?

As a side note when you forget to do the math and hit submit it shouldn’t wipe out your whole comment.

You guys sneaked up on me. 🙂

Ken – Do you use Realtor.com or comment on Trulia? It seems that most sites have a primary agent listed – the one who pays to be there.

Frank – It’s my recollection that RealSeekr has been online – what? – a month? If listings weren’t mentioned then someone is going to say: Doesn’t it have listings?

Yes I use Realtor.com (enhanced)
No I don’t use Trulia
No as of current status I wouldn’t use ReelSeekr

Compare how the listings are displayed:
ReelSeekr
Trulia
Realtor.com

To be 100% fair I used the same listing on all sites and made sure not to pick one that is enhanced on any of the sites.

ReelSeekr doesn’t link to the brokers site and brands the page to make it look like Scott Berg is the listing agent.

Trulia links to listing broker (or source), doesn’t brand the pages to another broker.

Realtor.com doesn’t link to broker, but doesn’t brand to another agent. Clear who listing agent is and what their contact info is.

My feelings are that although young, this could grow in something incredible. I already like what I see. Benn’s comments about Grant and Gia are right on the mark as I have spoken to Gia in depth and Grant a bit too. They want to listen, they want to adapt, and they want you to help to make it yours. This to me seems like a great start to anything.

Call me green and inexperienced, but just based on the calls I get selling me this or that, its all about the dollar for many companies and while I’m sure Grant and Gia wouldn’t mind retiring thanks to the billions realseekr.com pulls in (billions is just a number I picked, please don’t say “Matt said they’re making billions off of me!”), I don’t think that’s necessarily what they are doing. I don’t know, I just get a good feeling when speaking with them. I trust them. I want them to succeed, because I like them. Isn’t that what we’re all searching for as agents, that sort of feeling from our clients towards us? Its a cool tool with an adaptability I have yet to see elsewhere. I’m already dreaming up things I’d like to see. Why not jump into the experiment and try thinking of ways you’d like to work in the online-realm and ways that the site could benefit from new ideas.

Maybe I just see this as a great time to get into something and have a say in how it works and what it does, instead of just taking the usual routes and doing things the old way. Remember, at some point, someone had to sit up and say…”wait a minute…an online search engine for properties? Genius!” Before that, we’d all be looking at stacks of paper files in binders (and I’m sure some of you did at one point). I know I wouldn’t want to do that (I never did thankfully), but it took pioneers and people with vision. Sure there are tools out there that do similar things, but this is one tool that you can help shape and I for one want to be a part of anything that gives me that ability.

Lani asked me the other day how I wound up at agentgenius and I had to admit I couldn’t remember exactly. What I can tell you is that no agent told me about it. No broker gave me the link. I found it because I wanted it to be found. In order to grow, you’ve got to be willing to jump in there and do something. I must have googled around, came across it, and gave it a try. Well…here I am. Not only do I learn from it, but I’ve made new friends and am now learning from them as well. If it wasn’t for my willingness to take that step, I wouldn’t have gotten here and I’d be just another agent, sitting in an office, wondering how to get things started.

Ken, you’ve hit on an important point of differentiation that I hadn’t noticed. I’ve seen Trulia’s pitch in person and they make a point of mentioning that they don’t sell advertising around your listing, only on aggregated listings (search) pages.

My eye went directly to the following:

This listing is brokered by:
ARLINGTON PROPERTIES
Office: (847) 670-8540

I actually had to look for Berg’s info because I’ve become accustomed to ignoring the “artwork” section at the top of the page. If you hadn’t pointed it out, I would have thought that space was reserved for the RealSeekr branding only.

Consumers, on the other hand, might well start at the upper left and think Berg had the listing.

@ Grant what about the question I posed about the branding of an agent who isn’t the listing agent around our listing?

@ Frank – The public in general will notice the branding and that is who will get some if not most of the calls.

Ken,

Thanks for the question. Brokers and Agents in most markets are permitted to have IDX websites which list every active property in their MLS whether they are the listing agent or not. That being said, most MLS’ also require that the actual listing agent and/or brokerage information be clearly displayed on the listing – which it is. A premium agent on RealSeekr will claim and enhance their listings and then the site has 2 major branding points for them (as listing agents) on each listing- their office and their photo show up on the property page with links to their other websites in a bright yellow box to draw the consumer’s eye: https://www.golisting.com/default.asp?page=property&id=815948&v=display . It also gives the consumer and listing agent the opportunity and ability to directly communicate with one another in real-time. The branding of an area is not by choice but by the legal requirements of the MLS’.

Count me among those confused by that explanation. Ken was clearly referencing the branding in the upper left corner of the screen. Are you saying that the local MLS is responsible for that branding?

IDX websites which list every active property in their MLS whether they are the listing agent or not.

An IDX only shows the listings that listing agents allow to be seen. You need a VOW to show every active listing.

A premium agent on RealSeekr will claim and enhance their listings and then the site has 2 major branding points for them (as listing agents) on each listing

But until I pay your ransom premium fee the most obvious contact information belongs to my competition. Oops just looked at your example and notice that the IDX suppling broker is still there even after I pay your premium fee, is that correct?

Simple question – if a consumer lands on the property Ken showed, who will they have real time interaction with?

It seems to me to be a lot like Realtor.com. As I understand it, the basic listing has some info and the phone number of the brokerage on it and agents who pay for an upgrade get to put their own contact info on their own listings, plus a wide array of other nifty videos and audios to enhance the users experience. So from a traditional “listing agent’s” perspective on the surface it looks like it could be a good thing. If all you do is list property and you are tired of print media, this could look like a good opportunity for advertising your listings. Many will think “If it draws traffic to your listings it has to be a good thing!”

We are back to the same point that is made every time a big listing portal makes its debut on the scene. Do we really want the Trulias, Zillows, REMAX.com, Prudential, GMAC, Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and now Real Seeker to fill all of the top spots on the search engines when searching for “Our City Real Estate”? For the agent that isn’t just looking for how to advertise individual listings, but is also trying to optimize his personal site, these sites are direct competition and adding anything to them is simply strengthening your competitors!

I am sure G&G are great people with the best intentions. For the hoards of agents mailing postcards, cold calling and door knocking in neighborhoods to get listings and then trying to figure out how to advertise them, this will seem like a great opportunity!

The only thing I can say is figure out what is most important to your business model and act accordingly.

Personally, I’m always cautious of the national sites that generate revenue by allowing “premium” featuring of whichever agent pays the most for a particular locale (or one that uses those very listings to compete against the agents in the search engine rankings). Both of those leave a bitter taste in my mouth. Its a shame really – there are a lot of ways to generate revenue.

And if a national site didn’t try to become a competitor (directly via search engines or indirectly by advertising other agents) to the very real estate agents that are furnishing the listings in the first place – it probably would enjoy great success by consumers AND agents alike.

I have been reading the comments and overall tone of the recent comments and honetly find most of them completely childish.

RealSeekr is in many ways on the cutting edge and as we all know cutting edge creates contreversary. The innovators behind new sites like RS always come under fire until the companies either sinks or swins.

As a member of Generation Y and a sponsoring Brooker on Realseekr, I hope this site swins the distane and is one of the driving forces in bringing change to the RE indusry as a whole.

Childish? In what way Matt?

Since you are Gen Y, I would like to know why you felt compelled to be a sponsoring broker. I’m not. I see this as just more competition for eyeballs looking for MY listings.

Tell me what is really innovative here and truly cutting edge here.

What am I missing?

Matt;

The childish person you are referring to is me. For the record, I called NOONE a pickpocket…that would be a THEIF. I said they were trying to get INTO REALTORS BACK POCKETS…meaning get into their wallets.

Yes. I used the word shyster here is the definition from Dictionary.com

2. a person who gets along by petty, sharp practices.

You’re right. That wasn’t EXACTLY accurate. My apologies.

I for one am growing weary of the same old stuff (give me your listings so I can grow an audience and see ACCESS to the traffic back to who I want at the price I want) sort of business practices…

Everyone pulls out a funded website as if it is the next thing to save the real estate industry…when they have NO local Louisville home searchers on their site and yet they feel entitled to the listings.

How much traffic did RealSeekr have for LOUISVILLE homes? If they didn’t have a SIGNIFICANT amount of traffic, then why do we OWE our listings to them to build it?

Hope it makes sense why I tire of the same arguments year after year.

Best;

Eric

I see the future orf RE and the direction it should go in.

Not to sound flippant – but who are you to decide the direction that real estate SHOULD go in?

This is why RealSeekr, Trulia, REALTOR.com, etc. offer agents the opprtunity to enhance their listings if they wish as a marketing tool.

Let me fix that statement for you because you forgot a big part in the middle of the sentence:

“This is why RealSeekr, Trulia, REALTOR.com, etc. offer agents the opprtunity to GIVE THEIR LISTINGS AWAY FOR FREE SO THAT THEIR SITES CAN OUT RANK THEM – AND THEN TURN AROUND AND CHARGE THOSE VERY SAME AGENTS BIG MONEY TO enhance their listings if they wish as a marketing tool.”

@ Matt – just so I’m clear, you recommend:

1. Hurry up and send all listings to these 3rd party sites – regardless if they actually have any relevant traffic for my area or not.

2. Let those 3rd party sites build up a huge web presence.

3. Spend lots of money on those 3rd party sites – either through enhanced listings, premium placement, or lead generation.

I just don’t see why I should be in such a hurry to HELP create a new place to spend my advertising dollars.

Matt, I would agree that RS is very much like Trulia and other 3rd party sites. As such, I would argue that there is little that is groundbreaking about what they do or what they offer.

It strikes me as funny when Gen Y think that they have seen a different business model when in fact it’s only a different wrapping on the same ole package. If you look around the industry and profile those who do the lion’s share of the business, you will find that they are far more than mere consultants and not in any way gatekeepers.

If anything, RS, via a sponsored IDX, just adds a middleman – you. Nothing innovative about that at all. Certainly you would agree that it isn’t at all transparent. In fact, one could argue that highlighting you as the point of contact does the buyer a disservice since you probably can’t answer many questions about the property. In fact, one could argue that you are now the gatekeeper, but without the actual individual property knowledge that the listing agent gatekeeper does have. Do you think the consumer really wants to talk to you about my listing? You must, or why else would you be a sponsoring paying broker?

…will turn the front page of Google into a festering pool of third party sites, all vying for the right to send leads to the highest bidder. That IMO is neither in the interest of the consumer NOR the real estate industry

That is the major point here. At the end of the day, it is still selling leads or placement. It IS all about the competition for eyeballs.

If Realtor.com had any vision, the enhanced listing would allow real time interaction with a visitor. Zillow could also deliver a knockout blow by having a nominal upgrade fee when you claim your listings that would enable real time interaction capability. That would be GREAT for the user and I would sign up ASAP. Even Eric would probably sign off on that. RS would instantly be old news.

(Dear Zillow, Trulia, R.com, et al:
I’m available as a consultant. Your ROI would be huge. Have your people call my people and we’ll do lunch.)

Eric, I will try and kep my response as object and factual as possible.

I agree with your rebutal. It actually brings up an issue that has been around for years. Many real estate professionals are using the internet and MLSs with large geographic reaches to broaden their market areas beyond their knowledge just to get the deals they need to survive.

These home search portals may elude to brokers geographically canvasing areas that is not their market area. A large reason for this is becuae the MLS system require the same broker to sponsor the entire feed not just certain areas. It is the duty of the broker to know when they are not equipped to service a customer’s neds and act acordingly (referring them to someone’s with local knowledge).

Bob, you mentioned “one could argue that highlighting you as the point of contact does the buyer a disservice since you probably can’t answer many questions about the property.” How is this different from a buyer’s agent that is giving their client information about a home based on just teh MLS card and no knowledge of the area? Again, It is the duty of the broker to know when they are not equipped to service a customer’s needs and act acordingly (referring them to someone’s with local knowledge).

“A large reason for this is becuae the MLS system require the same broker to sponsor the entire feed not just certain areas.”

That isn’t true. Each city could be feed by a different IDX feed.

As ReelSeekr currently sits any agent that promotes RS are helping out ONE broker, the one that sponsored the IDX feed in their area. Nothing else matters until this is changed or I happen to be the broker for the Chicagoland area 😉 .

For some reason RS keeps getting compared to Trulia, but this is nothing like Trulia as Trulia doesn’t put a competing brokers information on all my listings (yet).

BTW Matt use spell check, it doesn’t make you look cool misspelling every 5th word. Feel like I am reading a text from a drunk friend.

Eric, you don’t need to spend a ton of time generating local content on ActiveRain’s Localism site. ActiveRain will let you copy and paste material from other websites. The only time AR removes stolen material is when it is stolen from another AR blogger. Otherwise all they do is deduct 200 points, a meaningless sanction on Localism that provides absolutely no relief to the damaged party. Neither Jonathan Washburn nor Rich Jacobson will address this issue because they know their current policy is indefensible, yet they have absolutely no intention of changing it.

Matt, it isn’t any different. That is my point. This is just another broker sponsored IDX site with a few extra bells and whistles. Its the lincoln version of the ford.

Actually, it maybe. My father’s Olds had few features compared to what you would expect to be standard issue today.

Hi Ines;

Of course SHE is not the enemy. This is not about personalities or people. This is objectively about business models and (I think) a rather frank look at where our industry is. I think it breaks down into four options.

Some of us think that it is OK to give away our listings to anyone (literally), REALTOR or not…and that doing that is in our best interest (ala Matt’s position). I asked him to stipulate who he would NOT give the listings to and he has not done this.

Some of us think that we should only give the data to people who have “cool” interfaces on their sites or dole the listings out based on cults of personality (so to speak) (NO offense intended whatsoever)

Model 3 would (IMO) be that the realtors do nothing and leave it as it is. I am AGAINST that because REALTOR.com is serving NOONES interest right now…not ours…more importantly not the CONSUMERS.

Model 4 (and the one I would support) is one where we don’t hand out our listings to every Tom Dick and Harry out there…BUT we work like dogs to get REALTOR.com to change. All of the photographs on all of the listings for NO CHARGE. If they want to charge for leads on our LISTINGS …GREAT, but do not pit the consumer against the realtor…our own trade organization is working against us. I am not for the status quo. I am for all of us rising up and forcing R.com to change by REFUSING to pay their extortion fee until they put the photos up on the web. All of them. When we sent the listing to them, they had all of the photos…why do we stand for them stripping the listing and then charging us to put things back to normal?

For those reading this…please do not misunderstand. My opposition to this is not personal. I am SURE that if I met Matt…I’d like him. Same with Gia and Grant. Same with Rudy, David G. etc etc…but deciding who gets listings on the basis of personality is IMO a flawed approach.

So my question for this (what I think has been FRANK and WORTHWHILE) discussion is:

What basis are you for in deciding who gets the listings? What is your criteria? Is it “give em to everyone? is it dole ’em out by personality? by cool interface? by who can phone call and entice the most agents? or? It is an honest question that i think our industry needs to answer and I think this is a great place to discuss it…

I think you hit it spot on when you said “Join the innovation or step away”….Some of the BEST innovations that I have seen lately have come from local brokerages and local bloggers OFFERING more opportunities for folks to engage on their sites. I do not think that local brokerages or agents with websites are limited in their vision. I think that many of them are more knowledgeable and creative in providing what their customer wants than the national sites….Innovation is not limited to those funded by venture capital or self funded third party projects.

I am curious what people are thinking about the criteria for doling out listings…and I am HONESTLY open to thoughts and ideas on this….

Thoughts?

Eric

@ Benn – I hear what you are saying, so lets take it a step further:

What if ALL of your clients said “we’re upside down on our loan – so we need you to give us back all of your commission so we can sell the home” – essentially meaning that you work for free for every single client?

The reality is – this is a business, not a charity. Just because something benefits the client does not mean we should provide it for them regardless of consequence.

Heh, you are taking what I said literally – instead of its intent.

I’m just taking your point to an extreme example.

You basically said in the following that if “Your clients want it – you are going to do it”:

I had a conversation with one of my sellers this weekend, and asked them what they thought of all of these search sites- their answer is I’m paying you to put my house anywhere it can possibly be found and we assume you’ll turn over every rock for new places… the wife’s reply was more specific when she said, “and you will turn over every rock, correct?” These folks didnt care if a zestimate was correct, they wanted it there anyway regardless of what I thought about it. So with that being said, their listing will be on every search site with every possible enhancement at my fingertips

And I’m making the point that just because a client wants something – or would benefit from something, does not automatically mean its something that we should do – particularly if it potentially harmful to our business in the long run.

Jennifer, it’s their money, and only our job to advise and make suggestions- if they insist, it is our job to do.

I add a few more words to the sentence:

Jennifer, it’s their money, and only our job to advise and make suggestions- if they insist, it is our job to do….or walk away from the deal.

If I have a client that insists that I do something that I’m not willing to do – I tell them to find someone else that will do it. 🙂

Eric- I have a tendency of studying my options and strategizing and also test systems to see if they will benefit me and my business (a little selfish I know, but I’m here for business…..although I do like a LOT of the people in the blogosphere). You make extremely valid points, points we all have to seriously consider.

The question arises when I think of the time and effort that needs to go into changing REALTOR.com – personally, I make an effort to improve our industry, but will ultimately do what’s good for us. RealSeekr is one of the good companies, IMHO and have a feeling it will benefit everyone involved (and I will check back with you to let you know how it goes).

Also, I think it’s important to have healthy discussion like this without the name calling, it’s offensive and not necessary.

Off to see Ben speak at Connect!!

Ines-yep.

Healthy discussion is good. (and name calling is not and is why I retracted what I said.–BTW that was comment #39–this is in the mid 60’s –what’s the statute of limitations??? GRIN)

So far it looks to me like a couple of people are on the “let everyone have the listings” (group 1). You are more of the “it depends on how I feel about them”.

And I am more of the “don’t give them out, but let’s go after R.com and get them to make the changes that we ALL know they need to make ( which are legion ).

As a starter can we ALL agree that R.com needs to post all of the photos and needs to build a social networking side to their site ala Trulia Voices? and that we will drop or threaten to drop our “enhancements” until they do? Why would anyone oppose trying to free our customers as hostages ?

And Ines…thanks. I do respect all sides of this issue whether we disagree or not…i do think we all care about our industry, but I think it is natural to unwittingly put ourselves ahead of our industry just because it is easier to say in our listing presentations…no worries, I blast you up EVERYWHERE on the internet…when we are really blast them up to a collection of nowheres IMO.

Best

Eric

Best;

Eric

For the most part, RS is like Roost – a co-branded IDX site. My listings are there, just like they are on every agent IDX site.

I doubt that the argument that the client wants every stone unturned is one that a Russell Shaw would debate. You are not hiring me to merely push your listing out there via IDX – that happens the minute its in the MLS, regardless of who lists it. I can offer that to a fsbo for $300.

Search google for a given seller’s area + real estate and you’ll likely have 7-10 sites on the first page where a seller could find their listing.

I’m as much a capitalist as anyone. I just don’t understand the celebration by real estate agents of a another 3rd party site that wants to compete with you in the search engines for eyeballs, unless you are primarily a listing agent.

I do understand the mindset of the 3rd party sites though. They understand how easy it is to sell BS to agents. For example, the following came from Zillow:

Free Co-Branding on Zillow
What is it?

If you place a Zillow URL on your Web site or blog with special coding, and it’s clicked, your photo, contact info and link to your Web site appear at the top of each Zillow page they see.
Why Use it?

* Co-branding boosts your visibility among the visitors you send from your Web site to Zillow.com.

I added the bold to highlight the ridiculous. Zillow actually states here that the benefit you get by sending YOUR visitors to them is increased visibility. Do you feel insulted? If not, you should. They realize that the real estate space is no longer flush with cash (hat tip to BHB), so now instead of asking for your money, they get straight to the point and ask for your visitors.

Now think about this for moment. They want you to send them traffic, but they also want you to advertise in order to reap the benefits of all their traffic. Still not feeling insulted?

Sorry…the link was broken on my last comment. Here’s the comparison.

Frank “Bob, the difference with Roost is that clicking on the listing will take visitors directly to the listing agent’s site rather than showing the listing with another agent’s branding on the same page.” isn’t exactly true. The only time that the listing agent has an opportunity that is better then any other IDX is IF they are willing to pay the premium fee. Otherwise this is nothing more then just another competing IDX.

You increase the likelihood that the consumer will call the listing agent (by insuring it with a featured agent spot) and thus save (in my case) the seller money as we do not charge full fee to represent both sides.

Benn, this is the argument of every upstart (and seasoned) third party listing site out there. Right now, according to Alexa, austinhomesearch.com (a LOCAL FREE portal) has roughly twice the traffic of realseekr (a NATIONAL SPONSORED portal.)

How much traffic do you think realseekr gets from potential Austin buyers?

How much time are we expected to spend plugging our listings into every crap real estate search portal out there?

the consumer CAN list it there without you and the consumer is currently being trained by the mass media to do exactly that- to post their home FSBO in as many of these engines as possible to provide the same exposure an agent can, even right beside the MLS.

This implies that the the exposure you get from the third party listing sites can compete with the MLS. Realtor.com eclipses both Trulia and Zillow in traffic alone. Factor in the thousands of IDX sites on the net, and the gap is even wider. Then factor in the % of serious buyers that actually AREN’T working with a buyer’s agent, and what do you have? You have a really ineffective marketing technique in the way of third party listing sites.

Just my opinion, of course.

Benn;

Off to teach a tech class but I was intrigued by the traffic phase of RealSeekr…can you detail a bit what marketing channels they will pursue in getting traffic? TV, Radio, Print, PPC, SEO, etc?

Best;

Eric

Frank – I repeat that I was a skeptic and I studied their concept and decided to join in – the fact that I now admire them and have become their friend is purely coincidencial and very thankful for it btw. Now I’m waiting for them to make me money and expose my listings and my branding.

I take a deep breath now to tell you that I am sleep deprived and this same discussion about real estate listing portals is getting old and we can agree to disagree. – but calling vendors names for trying to make money and provide a good service to the consumer, is totally ridiculous.

At Inman this week, they mentioned that if Realtors saw themselves as “Vendors” (don’t shoot me yet, I didn’t say it) – then we would not only understand clients’ perception of our industry, but would be more open those those trying to sell us products [some are great, some other are not]

Ines-

Too funny. Get some rest =, my friend (grin)..When I lived in Korea many years ago, the first time I dreamed in Korean it REALLY freaked me out…sleep deprived posting in Spanish can be tough! Hope you are having fun at the conference.

Best

Eric

Bob – I do seize the high ground myself – funny enough, it’s about not placing all your eggs in one basket. If you can seize several opportunities that will get you business from several different directions, why not? My site is performing beautifully in the search engines and I like it that way.

Eric – I’m glad you know I how I feel 😉