The headline
Google announces real estate search in New Zealand and Australia, and yes, offers agents a free opportunity to get home sellers’ listings into Google, offering increased traffic and exposure to your website.
Just a new tool or a valid threat?
The fact that it’s a tool lends to the possibility that it is a true threat to local MLSs, namely because once launched across the board in the US, APIs can be used to disintermediate the whole lot- in fact, your local IDX vendor could conceivably drop the lame rules of the local boards and simply work through Google- and why not? It’s completely free to agents. It even appears that there is some serious exploration to featuring you and the property you’re listing! Hello Realtor.com! Can you say “first comprehensive national MLS”? Google can.
The vacuum of skipping one middle man for the free, less hassle, better exposure, flexible APIs to work with that is Google seems likely to be a strategy that could work. Once the listings are being captured in numbers over the allure of rankings and traffic, a fracture over lockbox use will surely surface as many independent brokers could essentially drop the high cost of participation of boards that just simply can’t/won’t advance, and will look for non-MLS controlled door lock solutions!
What about those APIs?
Yep! Google is offering APIs to brokers and agents to automatically feed their listings to Google, and what does that mean? No more entering the same data points over and over and over and over again!
But wait, there’s more! Remember those IDX vendors I mentioned? If you’re no longer cooperating with local brokers via the local board, then technically, the only listings you’ll need are your own, so why not just load that lovely Google API into your local real estate website and show ’em all listings plus your own?
Did I mention the tie in of your Google business listing and the possible ability to throw up a free single property website using Blogger? OR how about the ability to connect with consumers via Google Profiles, and Google Connect?
The picture is becoming more and more clear.
Oh yeah, it’s a threat, and a tool, ain’t it kick ass?!
There’s no real word on when this new disruption will reach the shores of the US, but I’m hearing sooner than later. And I’m sure you’re thinking, we just won’t work with Google, right? Fine, tell your clients you won’t feed their listing to the world’s largest search engine, and watch them do it for you- like I said, it’s free, less of a hassle than you, and everyone says they can do it on their own anyway, right?
Where do Zillow and Trulia fit into all of this? Simple- if and when ‘find an agent’ or ‘find a Realtor’ searches become really popular, I’m absolutely positive Zillow and Trulia will be the hit of the party! After all, at the end of the day they’re essentially a feed of your listings, and the best they’ll offer is a repackaging of what can already be replicated using Google from what I’ve seen.
So, Did Google Scrape Your Listings? Nah, They Won’t Have to! Unless of course no agent or consumer in the entire country enters a single listing into Google- and that ain’t going to happen.
Is Google after your local business? You betcha.
But I think there is a possibility that Google sees some value in the real estate professional at least in the short term; why else would they entice you with better traffic and rankings? What Google really wants is more opportunities for you to advertise. So advertising or not, avoiding it in the short term hurts you in the long term because your ability to adapt and change with the tide will depend on practice, trial and error.
What’s about to change?
- IDX
- Video
- Property Portals
- Brokerage splits
- Forced adapted real estate business models
- The local agent
- Buyers agents
- Classifieds (Craigslist type portals)
- Newspaper real estate (the final blow)
- Virtual tours
- Local MLSs (boards and memberships)
- Lockbox monopolies
- Mobile Apps (an astounding surge)
Okay, so if all of this is true, what do you do?
The local MLS once upon a time controlled the starting point of the real estate search, then newspapers and media companies. Everyone and their dog has attempted to circumvent this reality by living in denial that those 70 sum odd percent of real estate searches started online- okayfine.
In order for one’s business to succeed, one will certainly need to pull one’s head from the sand that the truth is, 70 plus percent of real estate searches begin with Google (and the search engines that will follow) and not the MLS- this is how Google is changing the game.
If one can own this concept and begin to look at their business from the new starting line, then one has a shot at adapting- this includes local MLSs.
