This is me in today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link):
Databases fall short of needs at realty.bots
Realogy, the giant, publicly traded conglomerate of big-name brokerages, recently announced a deal whereby it will feed all of its listings to realty.bots, Trulia.com and Google Base.
That’s a mouthful. First, what’s a realty.bot?
A realty.bot is an Internet start-up that plans to undertake some part of residential real estate transactions, usually as an adjunct to selling advertising.
Trulia.com, Google Base and PropSmart.com are listings.bots, acquiring listings by scraping Web sites, direct entry and data feeds.
Zillow.com and several others are AVMs, or Automated Valuation Methods, and Zillow is graduating to a direct-entry-only listings.bot.
Redfin.com can seem like a realty.bot, but, as with many other new entrants, it’s really a brokerage with a higher-tech front end.
A better bright-line dividing point might be face-to-face, end-user contact. We may come to the point that a realty.bot is distinguished from other vendors by being untouched by human-hands, a completely automated real estate product offering.
What’s interesting about Realogy’s initiative is that it moves millions of real estate listings onto realty.bots. The natural conclusion to be drawn is that realty.bots are the new MLS.
This is false. Online real estate search tools (their name is legion) are a great place to shop for a home, but they turn out to be a poor place to search for a home.
There are hundreds of searchable data fields in a true MLS database, as compared with a few dozen in a realty.bot’s dataset. Moreover, MLS systems are policed for accuracy and availability, with fines assessed for errors.
I tend to communicate in listings, with both buyers and sellers. In addition to all the other things a professional Realtor can do with the MLS system, it’s the absolute best tool in our arsenal for pricing homes.
Even after we’ve found your perfect home, we’ll be talking back and forth in listings to make sure the price is right, to assess future resale value, to make sure we didn’t miss something better in the neighborhood.
These functions require a full, robust MLS database.
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Drew Nichols says:
I am so far servicing buyers in the 25-30 age bracket. We went to college with Napster and the Internet being everywhere. They “search” the IDX feeds every day and send me what they want to see.
When I actually sit down and do a thoughtful, methodical MLS search, I pull up so much more and more qualified houses. They have never seen these and are amazed.
I do wonder, however, if the Realty.Bots were allowed to, if they’d be just as good. Right now only Realtors can search the MLS with power tools – why is that? I mean I know why – but when will it change?
March 16, 2007 — 2:42 pm
Jesse Bilsten says:
I’m wondering what kind of robust MLS databases you’ve interacted with… Most of the ones we integrate with are CVS files on an FTP with a zip file full of images. And those are the “good” ones… Meaning they’re utterly out of date, and decrepit at best.
I could see some of the new ones that are actually RETS compliant being useful in some nature… but the ones we’ve dealt with aren’t anything remotely useful for searching. Unless you’re talking about the IDX services that integrate with them?
March 16, 2007 — 2:50 pm
Robbie says:
Keep in the mind, the following…
Your local MLS aims for depth of information.
Your local MLS is a tool designed for professionals.
Your local MLS is designed to meet the needs of your local area realtors.
The Realty.bots aim for breadth of listings.
The Realty.bots are tools desgined for consumers.
The Realty.bots are designed to meet the needs of the entire nation’s real estate consumers.
Comparing the two, is like comparing a Boeing plane to a Corvette. They both get you from point A to point B, but they serve 2 very different markets. Realty.bots have requirements that your local MLS couldn’t handle (and the reverse is true as well).
Also, as Jesse previously aluded to, keep in the mind that the data that some MLSs provide for IDX vendors leaves a LOT to be desired.
I suspect the capabilities of MLS vendors tools, IDX web sites, and the Realty.bots will converge over time as they implement each others good ideas.
March 16, 2007 — 4:19 pm