Patch is struggling and laying off 400 people.

The neighborhood opportunity is still up for grabs. The real estate industry should band together, and go after this local news opportunity.

Create a destination for hyper local news all across the country. Why more brokerages aren’t creating destinations for local news in their markets, is beyond me. The strategy is already known, and isn’t that hard. Be relevant to someone buying, selling, owning, relocating, or traveling to your area.

What’s needed to pull this off:

• A great technology partner with a vested interest in the long term success of the platform.
• Seed investors who will fund the initial development (or crowdfund it?)
• Agents and brokers in all the major markets with a vested interest in the platform. Give these partners an actual ownership stake in the platform so they stand to benefit from its long term success (otherwise, there isn’t much incentive to write on.
• Content. Lots of great local content.

Or keep on doing what you’re doing and relying on other platforms for access to your potential clients’ attention.