Zillow Advice launched this morning. And I'm feeling apocalyptic.
Seriously: This release, while nicely executed, says a lot about the state of online real estate innovation.
In short, despite a few recent gems, their ain't much of it right now.
It's a straightforward, and long-awaited, parity move. One that was probably necessary. Trulia Voices has been growing uncontested for a while now.
But do we really need another online real estate "community" where hungry and over-eager real estate professionals lunge at consumer questions that so much as graze their area of expertise?
Do more page views and more registrations, however they may be sliced and diced, really help the fundamental challenges at the heart of Zillow's business model?
What new value is created here?
Sorry. Enough with the buzz kill. I'll crawl back under my bridge now.
– Brian Boero
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A mist of difference
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The trick in any Web 2.0 environment is cultivating unbiased crowd wisdom. This is especially tough in real estate where those who have perhaps the most legitimate and up-to-date neighborhood knowledge to share also happen to hold a profit motive (and who may be growing incresingly desperate for "leads").
Realtors: your advice is more likely to be trusted when it doesn't end with "call me today to find the home of your dreams."
Q for 1000Watt: how would one go about building a web 2.0 real estate interface that wasn't deluged by overeager salespersons? How does one get consumers to start talking about real estate w/o agent intrusion? A larger question: is that the end goal?
Jeff, good questions.
I think it is possible to channel the valuable knowledge Realtors possess in a way that's better for consumers, and, ultimately, better for Realtors.
Think about Twitter: All those thoughts existed, free form, in the minds and on the sticky notes of millions of people. Twitter just gave them form.
This a big subject, and doing this in real estate is, I think, a worthy goal.
More later…
I think that Realtors need protecting from themselves when it comes to new mediums. We often are way to overzealos in what is the newest marketing fad. At one time it was Realtor to Realtor links, then it was webrings, then it was myspace, then facebook… I think any Real estate specific 2.0 community NEEDS to be preparred for an onslaught of over interest by Realtors or it will fail/not give benefit.
I am not sure that professionals' time is well spent responding to questions on fora like this.
Answering questions for a living doesn't seem to be a viable option.
If it were, "jeopardy contestant" would be the career of choice for thousands.
All points well taken. I waded into Trulia Voices, and then quickly jumped back on shore because (a) the questions were dumb, and (b) the answers were mostly dumber. And I didn't feel like it was a good use of my time to provide content to a third party site when I could be, say, writing content for my own. Or sleeping.
I'm sure people can point to success stories in which agents who answered a lot of questions got a piece of business out of it, but there's probably a silent vast majority of people who contributed their efforts with nothing but a "you agents are all greedy bastards" flame war to show for it.
I don't think it's fair to blame the agents for jumping zealously to answer questions. If you flip it around, and agents ignored the questions rather than jumping to answer, we'd read about how agents only want to answer your questions if you're ready to buy or sell, and that otherwise they could care less about you. But it's definitely the case that most agents aren't sophisticated enough to make contributions without some hackneyed call to action at the end.
So, in conclusion, if anyone has referrals for New York City's northern suburbs…..
Thank you Brian. I think Zillow advice is a product of keeping up with the apps found in Truila, LinkedIn, etc. They're behind if they don't.
The social media apps being deployed on sites like Trulia, Zillow, and Active Rain are cities of confusion. There are so many people, so few freinds. It's like living in Manhattan.
Social media is about making personal connections. Dude, I love that 'I am not a lead' video. I was thinking the exact same thing the other day at a big convention where I picked up my badge next to the 'Leads' counter. I thought to myself, 'Don't call me a lead', and walked away offended.
True innovation will come when an agent or home builder can use social media to create personal connections and conversations. Unfortunately technology doesn't do that for us, it only creates the opportunity.
How about we innovate by telling agents and builders to work hard and smart at building an audience and then meeting the needs of that audience through personal contact. Using social media to successfully connect is innovation.
Jim Adams – CEO
New Homes Directory.com
Jim
You give great advice "How about we innovate by telling agents and builders to work hard and smart at building an audience and then meeting the needs of that audience through personal contact.
We just held our last all hands of the year and we reminded our team that "innovation" doesn't just mean product features. Innovation could and should be about creating ways, a mind set/culture of connecting with customers. Technology can't do it all.