Clarifying the "Listing Agent" Confusion – IDX vs Trulia/Zillow/YahooRE
From the Syndication To Real Estate portals PDF paper from Clariety Consulting after showing examples of Trulia, Zillow, and Yahoo! promoting other agents over the listing agent on listing detail pages:
Trulia, YAHOO!, Zillow and others would claim that their ad treatments are no different from the standard industry practices of “cooperation and compensation” and IDX display, where someone other than the listing broker works with a buyer and where competing brokers advertise the listing broker’s properties. However, as noted above, closer examination suggests that consumers often are not aware that their inquiries are being directed to someone other than the listing agent. And the user experiences on these sites often actively disadvantage the listing agents. Moreover, the IDX infrastructure is specifically designed to help brokers provide permission for their counterparts to advertise their listings (with prominent attribution for the listing broker). Many publishers would be hard pressed to argue that the listing brokers have knowingly granted permission for third-parties to advertise and capture leads on their listings, and the treatments on Trulia, YAHOO!, and Zillow are in no way comparable to typical IDX display rules.
In my mind, there is no question that IDX results in the same confusion regarding who the listing agent is that Z/T/YRE has. Ask Jay Thompson or Kris Berg how many phone calls they field from buyers who find their websites as a result of address searches for a particular property they are interested in and have no clue that they are not calling the listing agent. The answer is “a lot”.
In any case, I don’t know why this is such an issue. Last I checked, the goal of listing agents was to sell their listings — no? Why does it matter who the buyer contacts once they find the home? In many cases, it’s NOT in a buyer’s best interests to contact the listing agent in any case. A listing agent has a vested interest in selling them THAT home. A buyer’s agent has a vested interest in selling the buyer a home that’s right for them. At least, in theory.
Would buyer’s agent rather not pay for leads? Sure. But is that reasonable to expect? No. Finding business comes down to time or money. You can either invest the time yourself over an extended period of time to build your network & book of business, or you can pay money to other’s who already have significant reach to bypass or speed up finding clients. It’s a pretty simple equation.
markbrian
Posted at 20:15h, 21 AprilCould it be argued that if this really matters to an agent/company, they would work hard to have their website rank higher than Trulia or Zillow?
drewmeyers
Posted at 20:17h, 21 Aprilyea. for those that understand SEO, it’s not that difficult to get an
address ranked ahead of Zillow and Trulia.
Buyers Agents
Posted at 00:25h, 27 Aprilyep agree to that, i’ve been working on taking the top spot for my site
drewmeyers
Posted at 23:26h, 21 Aprilcase in point – http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=11814+Cypress+Canyon+Road+%232,+Scripps+Ranch+$495,000+San+Diego,+CA+92131&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Kris Berg
Posted at 14:41h, 22 AprilOoh! That links to my site! 🙂
Two issues here. One is the issue of “who cares” where the calls are going if you are a listing agent? One could argue (I am one) that the listing agent is better prepared to answer questions on that specific property. My client is better served if all marketing roads lead back to me and my website, not a paid advertiser who is just looking to sell any home. Ultimately, I don’t care who represents the buyer. That’s not the point. Further, there is equity for the listing agent in those sticks in the ground. Traditionally, those sticks have meant introductions to customers and opportunities for future business development, not unlike the buyer’s agent buying a side bar ad or running a print mailer. For listing agents, listings are the lead generators. When those leads start being redirected, as they are now, we are placed in the position of having to pay to get them back.
Regarding your statement, “In many cases, it’s NOT in a buyer’s best interests to contact the listing agent in any case,” tell that to today’s buyers. The vast majority of the calls and emails we field are from people who ONLY want to talk to the listing agent. Sure, in theory this seems foolish, but they are just following the money. They perceive a coop commission dangling at the end of the stick and, armed with all this information courtesy of the internet and a misguided notion that the transactional process is easy or that representation is overrated, they believe that cutting out the “middle man” will result in a better price or at least a bonus prize to help with closing costs.
More to point: Is it true that “treatments on Trulia, YAHOO!, and Zillow are in no way comparable to typical IDX display rules?” Maybe, maybe not. But I do know that the property pages on those sites are becoming so cluttered with agent photos, it is certainly harder to tell who has the listing. And now, with agent ratings on one of those sites, we are being strong-armed into sending our clients over lest we look like the one lame-o who doesn’t have any stars next to our name. That’s an example of where it becomes more than “cooperation and compensation.” It is more of an extortion ploy for traffic and advertising dollars.
drewmeyers
Posted at 01:41h, 24 AprilHey Kris-
Yup, that links to you..
Obviously I value your opinion, as you have a wealth of experience in the trenches on this issue. On the who cares thing, you have a valid point. In many cases, buyers do want to talk to the listing agent to ask a specific question, just as I as a consumer want to talk to someone at the company I am buying a product from because they are best poised to answer questions about their own products. But early in the process, I’d usually rather talk to an impartial source who isn’t vested in selling me the exact product I’m researching. But I totally get it. In an ideal world, everything would go back to the listing agent. Or show the listing agent prominently as well as a few buyers agents in the area and let them make their own decision in terms of who to contact.
I still think this all comes back to the point that until the real estate industry chooses to invest heavily to compete with Zillow/Trulia/YRE/others on the web with their own portal where they do what they wish and direct all traffic/leads back to the listing agents, then there isn’t really an alternative. It costs a lot of money to build and market Zillow (or any other portal), and they of course have to monetize what they’ve built.
Zillow and other portals help buyers find listings, and selling those homes is the job of the listing agent…so as long as Zillow is helping buyers find and buy homes, I still see it as helping listing agents even if the specifics aren’t 100% what listing agents would prefer.
Just my 2 cents 🙂
Anonymous
Posted at 03:14h, 04 September“But early in the process, I’d usually rather talk to an impartial source who isn’t vested in selling me the exact product I’m researching. ”
The buyer has the option of calling the agent of their choice if they desire.
Matthew Cohen
Posted at 20:20h, 21 AprilCertainly, despite display of the listing broker, consumers still might wish to contact the site owner or their buyer’s agent (perhaps one and the same). And a consumer might become confused to the difference between the listing firm and the site owner. But the intent of the IDX rules is to make the listing firm plain. That’s part of the agreement that was reached that has worked well for enabling brokers to display each others listings on their web sites.
Context, from VOW rules: A Participant shall cause any listing that is displayed on his or her VOW to identify the name of the listing firm and the listing broker or agent in a readily visible color, in a reasonably prominent location, and in typeface not smaller than the median typeface used in the display of listing data.
Context, from IDX rules: All listings displayed pursuant to IDX shall identify the listing firm in a reasonably prominent location and in a readily visible color and typeface not smaller than the median
Asking the listing publishers to follow similar guidelines and not further confuse the consumer seems reasonable.
drewmeyers
Posted at 20:27h, 21 AprilI know for a fact many agents with indexable IDX get a lot of phone calls
from buyers who find IDX property pages from Google, and call them without
knowing who they are. They are all equally confused that they are not
speaking to the listing agent. All I’m saying is that IDX is no better than
Z/T/YRE in terms of attribution of other agents vs the listing agent.
But again, I ask – why does the industry care as long as they are selling
properties as a result? Isn’t that the goal?
Matthew Cohen
Posted at 21:50h, 21 AprilDrew, so as long as we agree on the result we shouldn’t care about the method? How about if syndication to portals stopped entirely, or if we moved to a model more like Canada where everyone knows to go to Realtor.ca. Consumers would still find the listings (as they do in Canada) and the agents wouldn’t have lots of other sites reaching into their pockets. As you say, “Why does the industry care as long as they are selling properties as a result?” With that as our guide, we can justify any course of action that doesn’t actively harm that broad outcome.
drewmeyers
Posted at 23:24h, 21 AprilIn a perfect world, agents/brokers/franchises would have better websites than zillow/trulia/yahoo and they could attract all their own leads and not charge anyone for anything. But websites are not the core competency of brokers/agents; they sell real estate. The time and money it takes to build a consumer focused website like Zillow is MASSIVE. Until the real estate industry chooses to invest heavily in that as a core competency, the portals will always exist.
Anonymous
Posted at 03:11h, 04 SeptemberMy goal is to earn a living and put a roof over my head and food on my table.
If we agree that my goal is to first sell THAT home, the one that belongs to my client–if the buyer does not WANT that home, my goal is to sell them a different home. That ability is compromised when I am asked to pay a fee to get my own leads.
Sam DeBord, SeattleHome.com
Posted at 15:09h, 22 AprilOur national Realtor org and the major brands have let us down in terms of national high-quality listings sites. Z, T, and YRE have filled that void. I agree with the agents who don’t like the fact that they must pay a service provider middle-man to advertise, but that’s the reality of the current market.
Build your own local site to beat the big boys or pay them to advertise for you. It’s not a perfect world, but until Realtor, Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX, etc. get their acts together, it’s what we’re stuck with.
Tina McGee
Posted at 16:44h, 30 AprilMy beef is with companies like Trulia, who allow any agent to “claim” any listing as their own. They say it’s not allowed, but they don’t police their site to enforce their own TOS. After seeing these unscrupulous agents claim my listings as their own, I have an account there strictly to claim my own listings. I refuse to empower my competitors (which is what Trulia and Zillow are) by participating in any of the “premium” services that they offer to agents. I prefer to invest in my own website instead.
drewmeyers
Posted at 22:18h, 12 MayHere is an IDX pages I just found – http://www.bestbuyseattlehomes.com/7221811_0-4709-176th-St-SW-Unit-C-4-Lynnwood-WA-98037-MLS-148758-RES_Detail.aspx
The name of the listing agent is NO WHERE to be found on the page (that I can see anyway). The brokerage name is there, but no agent name.
Anonymous
Posted at 02:53h, 04 SeptemberAs agents we all know that most times when a buyers calls on a specific listing they do NOT buy THAT listing. Once they arrive at, or inside, the house, it isn’t what they expected. Therefore, I do have a beef with these services that allow agents to claim other agent’s listings (like TRULIA, specifically), or websites that have a button to “schedule a listing” and the inquiry goes to another agent. And yes, the goal is to sell MY LISTING, but since 99% of the time the call does not result in a sale of THAT LISTING (just like an open house 99% of the time doesn’t sell THAT HOME), I resent the fact that I list a home and someone else gets the inquiries. It’s wrong. It’s the same thing as another agent ADVERTISING my listing. They aren’t allowed to. Neither should my inquiries go to another agent.
Many times agents “buy” zip codes that are no where near where they work or specialize. I am on the east end of Long Island. Many of the agents listed as “experts” in my zip codes live in far western Long Island towns. They know nothing of this end of the island, and frequently tell me that my listings aren’t in the town I have them listed in! (Because some towns here do not have street mail delivery from the town post office, the GPS shows the township instead of the town.)