2014 Prediction: The Consumer Shift toward Personalized, Agent-Curated Search
There are lots of technology trends to watch in 2014 (Brad Inman’s here). I happen to believe the one that will break through on the consumer side is going to be personalized, agent-curated search.
I’ve written about this is more, but I’ll say it again.
Less is more.
There’s simply too many listings for the average buyer to browse and process. Agents can (and already do) curate those results for buyers. AgentFolio saw this opportunity several years ago, and streamlined the communication between agent and buyer with respect to new listing alerts – direct from their mobile.
My hunch is that several IDX providers and agent/broker website vendors will begin to integrate this sort of technology into the primary search interface sometime in 2014. Maybe teamed with a “Mayday” button.
Why?
Because it makes the real estate agent part of the buyer search process. Which, of course, means another way to generate buyer leads.
A few entrepreneurs abroad will dabble in the space, but we’re still a couple years away from anything breaking through outside the US.
What’s your prediction for the breakthrough consumer technology trend?
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 18:21h, 27 DecemberI am not seeing a demand for personalized, agent-curated search. We are sending out a lot of Emails now offering that service and get very few takers.
I think it is a great, no obligation service to offer and really helpful for clients, yet many are probably so leery to work with an agent that they don’t take us up on our offer.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 11:58h, 28 DecemberI don’t believe we’ve seen the right integration yet that makes this more central to the search experience and not just an “add on” offered to clients.
James Meyer
Posted at 11:32h, 28 DecemberHaving advertised with Zillow for over a year now, I have already been doing this. The accuracy of the data is poor in my area and very mis-leading. It’s easy to make the shift to curated listings just by offering ACCURATE listings.
Garrett Nelson
Posted at 14:24h, 28 DecemberI’ve been doing ‘curated’ searches for my clients since I started in the business. I didn’t call them that, but I set up custom searches for my clients and update them regularly with the results. Seems like a pretty logical thing to do as a buyers agent.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 15:03h, 28 DecemberYup – most agents have been doing this for a long time. Just via crappy MLS software, with a poor client experience.
Garrett Nelson
Posted at 15:20h, 28 DecemberSome of them aren’t that great. The system in Matrix is does a decent job. I’m trying out agentfolio with some of my clients. It’s pretty cool, but still some things that need to be improved with it. I like it though.
brian
Posted at 08:42h, 19 SeptemberThere is aan app available up in Toronto Canada called AgentFlux in the app store and Play store. Looks like this but not as complicated and bloated.