listings

Last week, we opened up the conversation about listing syndication with a brief background of what it is and how it came about. Today, our focus will be to look at the advantages and disadvantages of listing syndication from the sellers’ and real estate agents’ point of view.

The trouble with looking at the pros and cons of listing syndication is that each argument for or against has its own pros and cons – so it can be a continuous can of worms no matter which side of the fence you are on. Hopefully, these posts will help you understand the root of the conversation and help you make your own informed decisions.

Listing Syndication Pros

Buyers are all over the internet looking at properties. They research, look at homes, and think about areas and neighborhoods, often long before they contact a real estate agent. Thanks to sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com (there are tons of other sites, but these three will remain the generic “them” for our purposes here), buyers have access to data that was once available only through the MLS, which was a highly coveted commodity that only brokers and their agents had access to. Because buyers can access so much information now, the argument in favor of listing syndication is simple – you want to be everywhere the buyers are. Why limit yourself to just one or two websites, when a potential buyer may be looking on a third site?

The sellers want the exposure. I have yet to come across a seller who said “keep my home sale quiet, will ya?” in my personal business (although they do exist, particularly in the higher end market). Sellers want their home shown to the widest possible audience to gain the most exposure and, this is why they’re selling, an eventual offer (or many). By cutting off a piece of the market, sellers don’t feel they’re getting the best service from an agent. As real estate agents, we don’t really care where the buyer saw the property – we just want them to see it, whether it’s from the internet, the MLS, or buyers just driving through the neighborhood. Our goal is to sell the home.

Listing Syndication Cons

Depending on which site you’re speaking of, the arguments vary, but the number one complaint, particularly from the real estate agents, is over the inaccuracy of the data. Every real estate agent has a story about a call they received from a buyer who wanted to see the “bargain” house that turned out to be a) a different price, b) not for sale, or c) had sold months ago. These inaccurate listings are much too common on the syndication sites. While some of the problems stem from data migration and syndication sites pulling from too many sources, some of it also occurs at the agent level (which is why I always argue for better MLS data to begin with – there are far too many mistakes in the MLS). There are also issues with data deletion (when a property sells for example) and data refresh rates (price changes and status changes).

Many of the listing sites also retain property data long after the sale. This results in properties looking like they’re for sale, when they are in fact not and haven’t been in a long time. Even when the sites indicate that these homes are just there for info purposes and are not for sale, the markers are generally not prominent enough to catch the visitors eye and can lead to confusion.

From the agent’s perspective, these sites are using the data we generate within our MLS systems and then taking that data and using it to power their lead generating syndication sites. In turn they sell the leads back to the agents. This is easily one of the biggest arguments within the real estate agent community.

If the leads are going to other agents, there is no guarantee that they know the home as intimately as the listing agent. In other words, the buyers are calling someone who may have never even seen the house and therefore is not able to truly “sell” the home. Of course, this argument always brings up the issue of dual agency (known as intermediary here in Texas).

Kimberly Howell Properties’ Stance

We at Kimberly Howell Properties believe that although the system of listing syndication is imperfect, it is the system we have, and to not utilize it to its fullest would be detrimental to our sellers. We want the sellers to have an opportunity to be seen wherever the buyers may be. Our preference would be to have everyone search for homes on our website, but we’re realistic enough to know that won’t happen. So we strive to work on our search engine rankings so that those searching for our listings online will find us before they visit some of the listing syndication sites. It’s a constant battle, but we have had a lot of success with it. If someone does find our listings on another site and that lead goes to another agent, we are more than happy to work with that agent in getting the home sold if their buyers are interested – that’s what we’re here for, to get the home sold and make our clients happy.

image courtesy of OregonDOT

This will probably be the hardest blog post I’ve ever written. The listing syndication debate is complex at best, with arguments on both sides of the fence and supporters championing their views with gusto. First, let’s take a look at listing syndication; what it is and how it began.

Listing information is generated by real estate agents within the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). Back in the day, this involved filling out forms and checking off boxes that represented items present in the house – everything from the number of bedrooms to whether the master bedroom has ceiling fans. Data. These were stored in big books at real estate offices and were distributed to other brokers so that they might show an agent’s listing and their clients might buy it.

Obviously, things have changed in the way we input and store the data, but overall the MLS is the same. It’s a local listing book of all the properties being represented by an agent, only now it’s online. The MLS is still a members-only site, so you have to be a dues paying member of the local MLS (in San Antonio ours is controlled by SABOR) in order to have access to these property listings. As the internet grew in popularity – particularly in the real estate realm – listing data was now aggregated by sites like realtor.com. Now consumers could view properties online without the aid of an agent.

What many consumers don’t know is that realtor.com is an advertising site. By using the listing data provided by agents and their MLSs, realtor.com is able to bring consumer traffic; all while selling leads, advertising, and upgraded marketing packages to real estate agents.

In addition to realtor.com, Trulia and Zillow entered the picture as well. The “big three” as they are known (often referred to as ZTR in real estate circles) were able to capture a lot of consumer eyeballs by being innovative and bringing large groups of listings together in one place from all across the country. Brokers were no longer the gatekeepers of the listing info – consumers could find the data elsewhere. Most of this data collection is done through the process of listing syndication.

Listing syndication is the act of allowing other websites to show the listing data. In the early days of internet real estate, this was done manually site by site…each listing had to be entered multiple times into different formats determined by the individual sites. As technology advanced, agents were offered one-stop solutions to this time consuming marketing effort. Fill out one form and the data would appear on multiple sites. By sending your listing to one site, you were able to reach a much larger audience than ever before.

With the proliferation of this data on third party sites, agents and consumers have begun to question the integrity and accuracy of the data. Clients often bring us properties they saw online, but when we them look up in the MLS there is either incorrect data (prices often being wrong) or the homes aren’t even for sale anymore. This has become such a major issue that some brokers have adopted a no-syndication policy and pulled their listings from sites like Trulia and Zillow.

So why does this matter to you? If you’re a home seller, this is all about you. Your home (the data) needs to be seen by the buyers – no matter where they are – but, you don’t want your home misrepresented either. You want accurate data about your house so that buyers can make informed decisions and make an offer on your home. In the follow up post we’re going to talk about the pros and cons of syndication and offer you some tips to deal with inaccurate representations of your home online…stay tuned.

image courtesy of OregonDOT