Future of Real Estate Listings
I had the opportunity and pleasure to speak at a conference held by some of the local Realtor Associations last week. The topic was technology; who are all of these new companies, their views on the real estate industry and are there opportunities for partnerships with the associations. I gave an overview of Trulia and then spent some time postulating what the future of real estate might look like.
When you take real estate listings as an example, I think the future will be quite interesting. If you look back to the pre-Internet days, real estate listing information was disseminated in print books and contained the text attributes of a property. A consumer had to contact an real estate agent to get access to the information and largely it was not up to date.
The Internet came along in the late 90s and revolutionized the way listing information is made available to the public. Sites like realtor.com, homeadvisor (now MSN house and home), mlslistings.com, etc. allowed users to search MLS information from the comfort of their own homes or offices whenever they wanted. Today there are many more sites (Trulia, Prudential, Re/Max, etc.) that allow users access to listing information. However, the evolution of the listing, has not changed as rapidly. Sure you can see some photos and in some cases a virtual tour, but for the vast amount of listings, there are only one photo and no virtual tour.
Looking forward 5 years, what will real estate listings look like? Something like this?
With over 73% of Americans having broadband connections; the ability to download, view and watch rich media applications such as videos is now a reality. Thanks to sites like You Tube, it is now even easier to upload video content. A recent search on You Tube for “homes for sale” yielded 400 results, in a few years it may have 3 million listings. These videos are much more than text and photos and realtor.com or a plain virtual tour, in time they can become a 5-10 minute walk-through of the home, neighborhood, schools, etc.
I asked the audience if they have ever heard of You Tube; less than 10% raised their hands. If tomorrows homebuyers/sellers are using services like You Tube and expect rich and robust information, how does this impact the marketing of homes, the MLS and ultimately Realtors? How do IDX/VOW policies affect this new type of listing information and format? What is the ultimate impact on buyers and seller behavior with more and more information being made available to them?
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David A. Porter said,
August 7, 2006 @ 7:37 am
Don’t you think that perhaps as soon as 5 years from now, a national “listing service will be available to the consumer. One that perhaps charges a considerably smaller fee for listing the home.
If so, what happens to the 6% commission that today’s Realtors are enjoying?
I have an $850,000 home to list soon. I am struggling with this very issue. $51,000 is a LOT of money to pay to have my house sold.
Michael Price said,
August 7, 2006 @ 11:25 am
The distribution of listings and their associated enhancements via web 2.0 technolgies is already changing the landscape. I am obviously biased, however, facts are facts. Our clients are experiencing tremendous results using Video Podcasts to promote their listings. We just had a look at the top ten referrers to a client site and two of those top ten results were from podcast directories. The two together represented twice as much traffic as Realtor.Com and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 5 years? I think it’s going to happen a helluva lot faster than that.
MP
Greg said,
August 7, 2006 @ 12:14 pm
One of the drivers of the evolution in listings will be the integration of video/floorplans/birdseye into the MLS systems, but this can be expedited by consumer-driven sites utilizing these same things. MLS’s are sometimes slow adopters to new technologies.
Todd Tarson said,
August 7, 2006 @ 12:57 pm
David Porter… Negotiate with potential brokers. Yeah 51k is alot of money, but so is 850k. You are probably going to have to market your home at places that the fine folks who can afford such a home will be found. Might be a magazine, might be some kind of TV production, or some other costly form of advertising.
Could simply be a site like Trulia as well. Which is why you want to know the marketing plan of the broker you are going to choose first, then how much is it going to cost.
I am a realtor, you don’t have to pay me 6% to list your home. However, you probably have a very nice home and have certain expecatations on how you want to be treated… sometimes that costs more money than say a more typical 200k listing. Just saying.
Don’t worry about us realtors and our 6% commissions.
immobilienportale.com - Immobilien Blog » In Zukunft nur noch Videos? said,
August 8, 2006 @ 3:32 am
[…] Im Trulia-Blog wird gerade daüber diskutiert, wie Immobilien zukünftig im Internet präsentiert werden könnten. Durch die starke Verbreitung von Breitband-Internetzugängen in den USA, macht es mittlerweile schon Sinn, Exposes mit kurzen Videoproduktionen aufzuwerten. […]
Terry said,
August 27, 2006 @ 11:28 am
For the gentleman that is confused on listing with agency or not. I think that you are in a serious decision process that could potentially end up costing you alot of money in lawsuits/safety/liabilities. the reason to obtain a Realto/broker is just simple. it is service that is taken very seriously by the broker. You can save tons of money by offering the buyer the right to use an agent in purchasing your home. Being said, you will not be able to get advice, information, or help from the buyer’s agent. You would not be paying for the service for yourself. if you think that you are u to the full time challenge of selling your hoe through marketing, prospecting, qualifying, showing, screening, posting, and most importantly following through with possibly interested buyers, then go for it. You get wht you pay for. you don’t pay yourself. The resultss of agency are through a very hard and decicated process provided by your Realtor. As Mr. Porter pointed out, you can negotiate your list price. Competition is healthy and good for the industry. Just remember, you do get what you pay for! Interview several agents for the job, but do not decide b/c of % paid, but what you will be getting. There is NO PRICE for results and closed deals!
Jamie said,
September 6, 2006 @ 2:24 pm
Comment removed due to being off topic.
Craig Davidenko said,
February 5, 2008 @ 8:06 pm
Flat rate real estate is the obvious choice for selling real estate.