Real Estate Marketing Blog

Google Basing the MLS II

Well it seems that as soon as I posted my mls.google.com story about Google Base, I started seeing similar takes in the real estate industry and elsewhere.

Blogs are that way aren't they? Topics often firing off simutaneously.

I saw references in Inman News as well as off-real estate blog marketing sites.

GoodRoI actually pointed out how the results seem to be showing up in the regular SERPS ( Search Engine Ranking Position). Perhaps a beta test of some kind.

GoogdROI references a poster over at Webmasterworld as having said that this is going to be a mess as every Realtor massively uploads their MLS listings and the rest of the MLS. This will cause a massive duplicate content problem. Not to mention all the vendors will get into the game of uploading your listings as a service.

Why would they do that? So they can get the traffic back to their site thats why. One poster actually brought out a brilliant point.

Drumat5280 said:

Google Base scares me.

I can handle competition from other sites, but competition from Google itself scares me in the classified ad market.

I am sure Craigslist and Monster are also starting to get scared.

This actually could be interpreted as a shot across the bow of agents trying to get Natural search results. If the bulk of the results are Google Base for real estate, then agents will have no choice but to pay for clicks.

This shows that results in natural search can come from, not only natural SERPS, but Local Search and perhaps Google Base. Oy Vey!

MLS.Google.Com

I have made a central theme of my posts and a foundational basis for my type of marketing real estate online is that the MLS has got to be protected. Why?

For one it is your only tangible service that you provide. It is something that the consumer can get its arm around. Thus it has value. Henceforth, the gazillions of seed Capital for this new era of Dot Com exuberance.

This will only serve to take away the consumers access to agents as the primary contact point. An intermediary will serve to capture the lead and charge you for privilege of accessing that lead. Not to mention the possibility of swaying the consumer away from a Realtor served MLS system.

Of course it isn't being protected much. And I believe it end will be a losing battle for the real estate industry.

Actually as a side thought...in order to have a battle implies a fight. So maybe I should not call it such.

Which is amazing to me since the data that is being given away is being financed and underwritten thru Realtor dues. Yes, my friend, like it or not you are financing eventual changes that you may or may not like. I would assume for the vast majority of you it would be the latter.

Think I am nuts? Well all we have to do is look at what the search giant Google is doing over the pond to get a glimpse of things to come here in the good ole US of A. Can you say MLS.google.com?

From the NYTIMES :Google is planning a big push into the European retail industry with plans to launch a service aimed at giving bricks-and-mortar retailers a base from which to market and sell goods on line......planning to develop Google Base, a product still in test, into an on line retailing platform. ......Nikesh Arora, head of Google's European arm, said in an interview with the Financial Times that Google wants companies in retail – and possibly other sectors, including real estate – to hand over private internal databases of goods and prices.

The times, they will change. How & when is up to you.

Out Zillowing by Fidelity

Two Major real estate industry players have countered the Zillow phenomenon with their own home evaluation system.

For Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions this is kind of a no brainer. Title companies have provided limited registered access to property records for years.

NeighborhoodHomeSales is the website. The Real Estate book joins Fidelity, HomeGain.com, HouseValues, HomeSmartReports of course Zillow with their model called  FastValues.com.

This is a manifestation of my Rule : "Technology Hath No Value".  They are all pulling from basically the same database. Does the data have any validity in the real world. Next time you refi, try to save on your apprisal fees and ask your Lender to use one of these online evaluations.

It's all cute, but too much information can be a bad thing. I am sure agents across the Country will have to combat the inevitable, "But Zillow told me it was worth $X".

Suing Google

It isn't new for google to get sued. But there is a California company suing them becuase...get this...

The company is suing becuase they got kicked out of google!

Google Inc.'s mysterious methods for ranking Web sites came under attack Friday in a lawsuit accusing the online search engine leader of ruining scores of Internet businesses that have been wrongfully banished from its index.

The civil complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose by KinderStart.com, seeks to be certified as a class action representing the owners of all Web sites blacklisted by Google's Internet-leading search engine since January 2001.

Thank You For Your Information

As Online Marketers it is crucial to understand that nature of the internet search.

By its nature of the internet searcher is to research online and buy offline.

Read that again.

By its nature of the internet searcher is to research online and buy offline.

This is evidenced by recent studies showing that 87.3% of consumers say they regularly or occasionally research products online before making a purchase in a store. This isn't real estate but human nature is human nature.

Our jobs as online home marketers is to respect that the serfer is using your data with the overt or covert intent of purchasing offline. And to jump in their path and say I have the info you wish to research, and your name and email is the minimal charge of admittance.

Here is the irony. They couldn't buy the home from you online anyway. So the purpose of the real estate website is to start a courtship that is instagated via the lead registration.

Real Estate Websites

Real Estate Website: Empowering or Confusing?

Does the proliferation of real estate websites empower or merely confuse the buyer or seller of real estate? How does the fast start of Zillow.com and Trulia.com affect your business?

Google Real Estate Video Ads

Google Adwords has been using more and more Pictures for their famous contextual advertising service. But they also are using video. As shown here in this clip from a newsmax.com article.

You literally can play the video within the article without it opening up in another page.

Any ideas how to use this to your advantage? I can think of several and I will be revealing them soon in my Guerilla Real Estate Coaching Club.

Real Estate Commissions

Brad Inman recently told CNNMoney, 'You`re now doing 90 percent of the buy side work yourself....That should reduce the 3 percent of the commission that goes to the buyer`s agent.'

It seems to me that there is a real leadership gap in this industry. All the producers are so busy making money they are allowing way too many pundits to speak for them.

He said new Web sites -- with free home appraisals, neighborhood information and advice to sellers on how to market their properties -- may cut into the work of real estate agents.. More discount or fee-for-service business models are becoming more popular.

Really? And when the home seller or buyer finds they under priced or over bid based on faulty evaluation systems will they sue the realty broker? Whose fault is it?

Really?  90% of the buy side work? Hmm. All that part is horse manure until it comes time to get into the house (which will take an agent on a listed property), and in the end, proper value will come down to an expert opinion.

I have personal friends whom have lost out on $30,000 commissions because they have told a client to back off. When I was in the business, in a declining market I walked away from several thousand dollars many times to save a buyer or seller from a bad deal.

As far the flat fee guys. I gotta tell you, I ran one of the first flat fee websites for years.

I don't know anyone who has made profit from this business model. Yes, lots of money passed thru their hands, but look at the P&L's and it bleeds with red ink.

There is only one licensed entity and the new fangled players online are not it. They may get licensed in order to "play the game" with regulators, but in the end they bring no experience to the table.

Hey, I am the first to bash the industry, but I am sorry, a machine will not replace competent, ethical, licensed agents.

Real Estate Branding

I recently came across a request for more information on how to better brand a website. Here is my answer paraphrased.

To build a brand first, before you have the ability to capture an abundance of leads and the strategies to follow up on those leads...
....is IMHO putting the cart before the horse.

Branding is a function of eyeballs loyal to you. Not your site.

You are not selling books. And even if you were selling real estate books as an example, look at how long it took for Amazon to become a Brand name. How much Red Ink went into their branding? You are selling houses, and a home is not sold thru a shopping cart online.

In California where I am, there is 1 licensee for every 75 people in the state. Do you think there is 1 online bookstore or offline for that matter for every 75 people?

Branding is not what a website is for...at least initially. It is to capture leads.

Once you capture your leads, then the real "conversation" and "courtship" begins.

I have written a great foundation on followup drip marketing here:

It is in your follow up that you have the opportunity to create a brand and loyalty.
If you spend too much time in your website on you, then you take away from your lead capture mechanisms. Brand and Call to Action compete as elements on a page. One has to lose, one has to win.

If you want to have a brand or brochure website, then have it seperate from your lead generation website. So both can do what they are designed to do.

Why Have a Real Estate Website?

Why have a website?

What is the purpose of a website?

I have an idea...could it be to get a sale?

Work backwards from there and you will always do better than the masses.

I podcast on this subject and more with my first real estate marketing podcast. Enjoy :-)