We’re off to beat the Wizard…

by John Rowles

IDX Search Entrepreneur

Author website

I found BloodHoundBlog by following a link from a comment Greg made on an Inman story that I had also commented on. It was pretty typical Inman fare — “Blog your way to a Fortune in Real Estate” was the implied headline. When I arrived here I felt like Dorothy waking up in her bed back in Kansas.

I am new to the Real Estate “industry”. I put that in quotes, because “industry” implies the production of something other than nausea when sellers see the commission they paid (BA DUM DUM – Crash! But I kid the Realtors…). I began working with brokers after building a career as an eCommerce consultant. That was in the real world, which for the purposes of the metaphor I will beat to death in this post, we will call “Kansas”.

That makes Real Estate “Oz” for all the many reasons that have been documented here over the past two years.

Full disclosure: I have spent the last two years trying to bring eCommerce Best Practices from Kansas to Oz. The centerpiece of that effort is a IDX Search platform called “Foyer” that is powered by Google Search Technology. I guess that makes me a vendor, but I am not a carny barker. So far, every gig we have is from a referral. Its been a slow way to grow, but its kept us honest. Its also the best marketing we can afford.

With that out of the way,  you want to know why you should bother to read what I have to say, so to give you an idea of where I am coming from, I will finish the beating of the metaphor.

If I’m Dorothy, then, in no particular order:

Lollipop Guild: Real Estate Agents. Obviously.

The Wizard: The NAR/Move Inc/Realtor.com cartel. Behind the scenes of an imposing edifice The Wiz is an old man pulling big levers (one is labeled “MLS”) that are no longer attached to anything. The Wizard’s power is derived from the size of the Lollipop Guild. The stature of the Guild members indicates the height of the barriers to entry set by the Wiz. When Bloodhounds rule the Emerald City the Lollipop Guild will look like the Boston Celtics.

Professor Marvel: Wikkipedia (What? You thought I remembered all this detail? Most of the times I watched The Wizard of Oz we were trying to sync it up to Dark Side of the Moon) describes him as “..a fraudulent but kindhearted fortune teller..”. In other words, the NAR research department.

Glinda the Good Witch: Kris Berg. Obviously.

Cowardly Lion: Brad Inman. Its hard to do the right thing without killing the Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs. The goose was not in The Wizard of Oz but should have been. (Although, Inman did publish this column from Marc Davison that reads more like something one would find on BHB, so maybe he his finding his courage? If he drops the Big Blue anti-ad ad, I may have to recast this one).

Tin Man: Pete Flint (Trulia). Come on, Pete, have a heart — ditch the nofollow tag on your listing pages and let the Lollipop Guild get a little Google Juice back for providing you with free listings.

Scarecrow: Realogy. Two years in and I still don’t understand how “branding” works when the only differences between them are cooked up in the marketing department between layoffs, and I have a brain. Sure, this goes for any RE brand that, as far as consumers can tell, offers the same business model, but Realogy does it under one roof with 31 brands. Its like walking into Baskin Robbins and all they sell is vanilla.

Wicked Witch of the West: The Mortgage Industry + (Wall Street + No regulation) = Credit Crunch. “Surrender, Equity!”

Flying Monkeys: The bond rating agencies who swooped in and did the Wicked Witch’s dirty work.

The Wicked Witch of the East: HouseValues.com. Its not that they are inherently evil, its just that their business model was crushed like the WWOTE by…

Dorothy’s House in Oz: Zillow. Ironically, the Zestimate is way off. Apparently, Zillow’s algorithm can’t compensate for moving a house into a parallel universe. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are considering a lawsuit.

Yellow Brick Road: In our Oz, it is paved with the promises of vendors and it leads off a cliff.

Toto: Greg Swann. In the movie, its Toto who pulls back the curtain and reveals the true nature of the Wizard.

That’s enough fun for one day. I am accepting nominations for Almira Gulch, Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, Hunk, Zeke and Hickory.

Let me know if you think I miss-cast anyone or if I should have given a part to someone else. But I still get to be Dorothy. These Ruby Red shoes are starting to grow on me.

There’s no place like BloodHoundBlog, there’s no place like BloodHoundBlog…