Color me stupid, but . . .
By: Greg Swann,
Phoenix Real Estate,
Post Archive,
RSS FeedPosted: Thursday, July 27th, 2006, 6:56 pm MST
Category: Blogging, Disintermediation, Marketing, Real Estate
…I don’t get it.
The Future of Real Estate Marketing avers that Trulia.com’s release of its map interface is a shudder-inducing disaster for other developers. This on the heels of yesterday’s reporting on Zillow.com’s release of its API to individual brokerages. There’s more news on both announcements at RealtyThoughts.
Is this exciting news for Realtors? Possibly. Gee whiz technology is like CheezWhiz — a little goes a long way. There may actually be a qualified, motivated real estate buyer who says, “If only I could see all the properties on an interactive map.” If so, that person is only surrounded by eleven other qualified, motivated buyers saying, “If only there were more photos…”
That’s as may be, and this stuff will surely be deployed. If I were Trulia.com, I would hook into that Zillow.com back-end and disintermediate the behotches: All the usual Truila details-in-a-box plus the completely unreliable Zestimate. If Zillow won’t roll over, someone else will.
But this is my question: How the hell are either of these two quivering little firms going to make money on this? “Advertising!” they shout in unison, but the advertising is on their home pages, where these APIs aren’t. Each one has a little click-back button to take self-selected volunteers back to the home planet. But if I’m getting the milk for free at LargelyUnobjectionableAtlantaHomes.com, why the heck would I go to the dairy?
If anybody’s shuddering it could be because they’re getting the not-too-subtle idea that what the “2.0″ in Web 2.0 means is that investors will be shooting themselves in both feet this time…
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6 Comments so far
[...] 46. Bloodhound Blog [Thanks for the link Greg!] – Color Me Stupid, but… Listen to this podcast [...]
Greg, first off I’ve got to tell you that I love your critique of technology, and your ability to ask the hard question. It’s refreshing, especially when you’re like me – a technology guy – who gets caught up in the coolness factor.
At the end of the day, the quality of both the Trulia and Zillow addons will be tested. If they provide enough stickiness or “zing” to a realtors website, maybe they’ll prove out as lead generators of some sort too. But what you’re saying is absolutely correct: where’s the business model?
Sure, some of these companies can make it on advertising, but I think that those with a model that brokers and agents are willing to pay for because it truly causes new (good) leads to come in will be the ones that make the money.
Thanks, Erik. I agree with your reasoning, and that’s why you need to buy my gee whiz technology solution.
[...] Color me grateful, but one benefit of the Trulia/Zillow free APIs for Realtor web sites is that we should see the end of the sleazy practice of making dewy-eyed anonymous-by-preference web-borne immigrants fill out a form to search the MLS listings. [...]
[...] If memory serves me correct, this is what Greg over at Bloodhound Blog says all the time. Filed under: Real Estate Agents, Technology, Realty News, Random Thoughts, inman, connectsf | [...]
[...] How will the TruZillia APIs make money? Volume! Baron Briefs has a richer answer: My initial thought on why each would do this: By opening up Zestimates and Zindices to the masses, Zillow is following in the foot steps of major players like Amazon and Google…build an API, let others innovate off the technology, and then acquire the best of breed. Remember, they recently picked up an extra $25 million to “broaden their product offering”. As far as TruliaMap, it’s likely an attempt to win over agents and brokers who haven’t warmed up to the idea of their website being crawled and scraped. Now, they get a cool widget for their website and Trulia gets access to more listings. [...]