You can help raise the bar in real estate

I couldn’t even begin to count the number of articles or blog posts online that talk about how awful Zillow and Trulia are. Some agents complain about the inaccurate data, and other agents don’t like the fact that those sites are capitalizing by using your listings in order to make money for themselves.

Here’s the thing: At the time of this writing, Zillow has an Alexa U.S. rank of 41 and Trulia has a rank of 98. Do you realize how incredible that is? That means that of all of the websites in the United States (and there are gazillions of them), both Zillow and Trulia are in the top 100 (with Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and Google among others). These guys are definitely doing something right because people are actively searching those sites (even if you believe the data isn’t accurate). And, since people are there, you need to be there, too.

Some brokers and brokerages have dealt with their feelings about the large syndication sites in different ways. In early 2012, Jim Abbott of Abbott Realty Group said that he planned to pull his listings from Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com. And, in 2013, Fischer Real Estate Services of Fort Worth decided that they were not going to bother competing with the large syndicators and decided to remove IDX from their website altogether.

I agree that sometimes the data is not accurate. And, I pretty much know why. If your data syndicates from the MLS, when you close a deal, then your listing will automatically drop off. But… (and here’s the big but…) if you manually enter in information and then forget to delete it, it stays there for years and years for the entire world to see. Like anything, the operator or the user might be somewhat to blame.

How do you deal with inaccurate valuations?

It’s tough to deal with those problems that come our way as a result of inaccurate property information online. But, people are going to be searching for homes on the Internet as long as there is an Internet to search on. So, you need to deal with it. Buyers and sellers will come to you better informed and you can use the data (accurate or inaccurate) to create a conversation about what is really going on at the local level. The onus will be on you to have your ducks in a row, to know the market, and to know the local area.

You can help raise the bar in real estate

Let me put something out there: Perhaps the fact that there are large syndicators like Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com and perhaps the fact that people are searching online will force you to hone your skills in ways that you hadn’t considered before. The questions from consumers will come from a more knowledgeable place, and you’ll have to be knowledgeable in order to respond. If we all were just a little bit better more real-estate savvy, would that be such a bad thing? Maybe it would raise the bar in real estate.