Louis Vuitton and the French Revolution
By: Kris Berg,
SanDiegoCastles.com,
Post Archive,
RSS FeedPosted: Friday, December 8th, 2006, 7:13 am MST
Category: Blogging, Enduring Interest, Marketing, Real Estate, Zillow.com
Louis Vuitton and the French Revolution. That is what my daughter told me she would be learning about in her high school European History class. Right war, wrong Louis.
On the morning after the Zillow news, I had my own knee-jerk reaction. I subsequently took it upon myself to contact a preeminent real estate reporter for my local rag, the San Diego Union Tribune. I referred him to the many on-line discussions that were taking place, and suggested there might be a story here. Also, in an enlightened moment of shameless self-promotion, I suggested that on his next slow news day, he might investigate the real estate blogging phenomenon and perhaps even the surprising dearth of serious San Diego-based blogs. (Jeff, yours is an exception, of course).
Regarding the Zillow debate, and I will paraphrase, he indicated that they would not be pursuing the story at this time. Message being, no news here. Funny, I thought, as yesterday morning’s business section included the following headlines: Aeromexico begins nonstop flights from S.D. to Mexico City; Food is family’s matter (Chick-fil-A founder’s grandson opens a new local restaurant); and Yahoo! reshuffles top management. Okay, I’ll give them that last one. But, Zillow isn’t news? It took me an embarrassingly long time (one coffee refill) to grasp the underlying reason for his reluctance to acknowledge and address my issue.
The Sunday Homes section is gasping for breath. Newer, less experienced agents can’t afford it, and the more experienced, knowledgeable agents have all but value-engineered it out of the marketing equation. Print media no longer provides the results, the return on investment, that can justify this as a significant marketing dollar investment. In-line classified ads have become a component of our advertising arsenal only as they serve to placate our home selling clients, utilized almost entirely to “buy” our listings. The newspapers have their on-line counterparts, of course, in an attempt to compete in the IT revolution, but an announcement such as the one by Zillow yesterday serves as a painful reminder that they can’t.
I expect and hope that there will always be a place for the printed word, a newspaper being more easily savored over an early morning cup of coffee on the back patio (unless it is December in Connecticut), but the serious consumer of news and classified ads will ultimately retreat to their computer for the most comprehensive and timely coverage. So, in the case of my local reporter, ignore progress and competition and it will go away.
Concerning my helpful suggestion that real estate blogging may be worthy of some column space, the answer was that he doesn’t see anything newsworthy here, as many local agents have website “newsletters”. Oh well, ignorance is bliss.
And back to Zillow. Steve says of the latest changes there that this is not so much a revolution as an evolution. I say, try telling that to Louis Vuitton… or the San Diego Union.
BloodhoundBlog’s team coverage of the Zillow.com upgrades:
- Greg Swann: 2006 is the Year of Zillow: The 900 pound AVM has been upgraded to be a free listing platform and the presumptive national MLS system…
- Greg Swann: Early morning Zillow news round-up…
- Greg Swann: Zillow redux: A post-diluvian retrospective…
- Kris Berg: Louis Vuitton and the French Revolution
- Greg Swann: You were saying…?
- Cathleen Collins: In the trenches with Zillow.com: A working Realtor’s first-hand experience listing a home…
- Greg Swann: Zillow.com versus Realtor.com: Nothing grows in the shade of great tree…
- Russell Shaw: Thank You, Mr. Barton, May I Have Another?
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Related posts:9 Comments so far
Fascinating — thanks for sharing this Kris. There were however a good spread of mainstream media outlets that did print their take on our news. You’ll find links to many of those stories here;
http://zillow.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=news
Kris
You are forgetting the other main component of his reluctance. If his readers, and editors, find out where he gets his story ideas (real estate blogs) he may have competition.
Can’t have that. If you think it is bad in the real estate news section, you should see how perverse this effect is in the “news” rooms. On another of our sites, we have news producers call us for input, and then we are told they are not able to mention us as a source.
Tom, All good points I hadn’t really thought about.
I also contacted my local rag, the Oregonian, and met the same response. Indifference masking insecurity.
So I’m not alone. I was starting to take this personally.
It’s only a matter of time Kris. As you claimed, print media is falling off the face of the earth and our Sunday Home section (Hampton Roads- “At Home Section”) is extremely overpriced for the amount of leads generated. However, I don’t believe it is gasping for breath, rather hiding behind the “Stubborn Change Curtain” and reaping the benefits of the non-technical savvy realtor/firm crowds. In the end, Zillo and people like you provide much more valuable information than the newspaper “columnists.” We just have to weather the storm a bit longer and sit back and enjoy the benefits not many people are accustomed to. It’s been a fun ride so far…much better than reading my local “Virginian Pilot.”
[...] There has been a tremendous quantity of commentary written about Zillow over the past week, with many great posts. Speculation abounds on how Zillow might or might not affect the traditional MLS model. I’ll tell you why I think Zillow is likely to trump Realtor.com and open doors for discounters. [...]
[...] A:Kris Berg: I am my own worst critic, and I am never totally pleased once I have hit the “publish” button. If I have to pick a favorite from my short time with the Bloodhound, it would be a post I did on Louis Vuitton and the French Revolution. The title words actually came out of my 14-year-old daughter’s mouth, and I was somehow about to relate it back to Zillow and real estate marketing. I absolutely love it when, as Jeff Brown once said, I can stick the landing. [...]
@The Sunday Homes section is gasping for breath. Newer, less experienced agents can’t afford it, and the more experienced, knowledgeable agents have all but value-engineered it out of the marketing equation. Print media no longer provides the results, the return on investment, that can justify this as a significant marketing dollar investment.
I would say you predicted the future with this post as I read this almost two years later. Spot on Kris!