jonwashburn: And Zillow goes head to head with Trulia

Don't ever ever upload listings to Zillow.  Zillow is one of those companies who would like to get between the Realtor and the customer and devalue the services we provide, at least in the customers own mind.  Zillow is one of those predator companies who go after the week link, and their are plenty of week minded Realtors who will only be so happy to give Zillow our data for free.  Next thing you know Zillow will start generating leads of those listings and want to sell them to the highest bidder.

 

Jim

Very interesting stuff, thanks for the link to the article.  I wonder how soon some of these services will become redundant...perhaps one of the many "unintended consequences" of Web 2.0. Or maybe, we're heading for mergers across lines which have never been crossed before. 

James, I doubt Zillow will get between the consumer and the real estate agent in the traditional lead aggregation sense.  That business model's time has passed.  Zillow however will utilize every advantage it can to become a primary destination for real estate related information. Why wouldn't they. 

In my opinion both Trulia and Zillow are doing a lot of the right things and will definitely become major players in our industry over the next few years. 

Lola,

Thanks for you feedback! I am already seeing some redundancy. For example Trulia Voices, Zillow Home Q&A, and ActiveRain's Ask an Expert, are all relatively recent product launches that essentially cover the same basic space.  

I think as time goes on we will see a lot more paths crossing, especially in Social Networking related initiatives.  

Everyone is trying to be 'All Things to All People.'  Is that really possible? Perhaps a better approach for these companies would be to stay more focused and specialized in a few key elements that they can do really well?

Rich, I don't know I think this property feed is right in line with Zillow's vision/mission/purpose.  I like their strategy of starting at the house level in their search for local content.