Dustin at Rain City Guide is giving stat-dancing lessons today. I am neither as talented nor as interested as he is, but I do have an interesting statistic to reveal: Debunking Zillow.com is averaging well over 100 unique hits a day. All of my extended Zillow rants do very well, and Debunking Zillow.com comes in third if you Google on “zillow.com” — which many visitors to BloodhoundBlog are doing every day. It pays to keep things in perspective: Our Zillow traffic can’t hold a candle to that which is landing directly on Zillow.com. But for anyone looking for a second-opinion, and apparently many people are, it’s right there on the shelf next to the branded product.
There are two memes I hear all the time in the disintermediation debate that I think are incorrect. The first is the implication that anyone who expresses a skeptical or negative view of one or more of the dot.com RealtyBots is either an actual luddite or is in some way frightened by technology, disintermediation or simply change in any form. The second is the idea that disintermediation in the real estate industry will — or will not — take the course followed by travel agencies and stock brokerages.
For the first meme, I can discern no evidence whatever. It’s a caricature composed of characterizations rather than quotations with supporting links. Surely I would qualify as a technophile of at least the second rank, and my objections to Zillow.com and Redfin.com have nothing to do with technology, fear or even the idea of disintermediation as such. Zillow.com is deceptive in its portrayal of what it can and cannot do, and Redfin.com is a cowbird that incubates its buyer representation commissions in the listing agent’s nest. I am one of the most pro-innovation Realtors on the planet — and, in case you didn’t notice, yesterday I proposed an innovation that will, as a secondary consequence, obviate Redfin.com’s current business model. What I am opposed to — and what every honest person should be opposed to — is unethical behavior.
For the second meme, I think both the “will” and “will not” sides are missing the big picture. If we’re looking for a model for what might happen in the near-run in the real estate industry — and reminding ourselves always that models, maps and prognostications are tools of thought, not Magic 8-balls — the model we might look to is the airline industry at the time of deregulation. By that standard, the Prudentials and Coldwell-Bankers look like stodgy Uniteds or PanAms, silver cutlery and warm towels at outrageous prices. Redfin.com is essentially People Express — which also had a fawning press before it went bankrupt — awful but cheap. The ultimate airline shake-out — and it ain’t over yet — resulted not in the elimination of any business model, but, rather, the recognition that one size does not fit all.
So what’s your favorite airline? That might help you figure out what you want in a real estate brokerage business model. My special pet is Southwest: Economical, fast at everything, thoroughgoing and fun. Plus which, Herb Kelleher is my all time favorite insufferable bastard…
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