A Zillow Trulia Merger – WOW
No offense, but unless you’ve been living in a cave or been on vacation in a remote part of the Amazons, you’ve likely already heard that Zillow entered into a monster deal where they acquired Trulia for a whopping 3.5 Billion (yes, that’s a ‘b’). Already the largest Internet site in the real estate listing game, Zillow has now merged with its largest competitor. Together, according to Zillow, these two companies will now control 48% of the online real estate listing traffic. (Read: More consumers visit Zillow and Trulia to search for homes than on any other website—big or small—across the Internet.)
In the press release of July 28, Trulia CEO Pete Flint states, “Trulia and Zillow have a shared mission and vision of empowering consumers while helping real estate agents, brokerages and franchisors benefit from technological innovation,” said Flint. “By working together, we will be able to create even more value for home buyers, sellers, and renters, as well as create a robust marketing platform that will help our industry partners connect with potential clients and grow their businesses even more efficiently.”
What does a merger like this really mean for home buyers and home sellers? According to a press release from the Zillow media room, it will mean bigger and better things—a more robust website with all the bells and whistles that will provide a more pleasurable experience for the consumer.
With 92% of home buyers beginning their home searches on the Internet, anything that will make the experience more pleasurable will likely be a good thing for the consumer. Home buyers already flock to Zillow and Trulia (as opposed to local real estate websites) in order to search for homes, and that’s not going to change.
A New Direction for the Industry
Stuff ends up on Zillow and Trulia in a variety of ways. What generally happens is that permission is actually given at a local level for your listings to show up on those sites. Then, it generally feeds automatically when you put a listing on your local MLS. However, what happens is that Zillow and Trulia also receive home listings from a variety of other sources. A home sellers without an agent can even enter his or her own home as a For Sale by Owner. So, it is basically a hodge podge. While many agents, brokers, and associations complain about the accuracy of that online data, it seems that the consumer is unfazed by that inaccuracy.
The primary concern with regard to this merger comes from some real estate professionals who believe that Zillow and Trulia may be out to own the real estate game. Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff was formerly a co-founder of Hotwire, a company that was sold to Expedia in 2003. He has a unique ability to identify industries ripe for Internet automation and was able to carry his experience changing the direction of the tourism industry into the field of real estate. And that scares many people in the industry.
No matter what happens with a Zillow Trulia merger at the end of the day, real estate is local. It is all about neighborhoods and connecting with professionals who understand the subtle nuances of local communities, home buying, and home selling. Consumers can hang out on Zillow all day and all night. But at the end of it all, they will still call a local real estate professional to help them navigate the homebuying process.
Things are moving fast and furious in the real estate world these days. Agents need to be on top of their game in order to be able to create a dialogue with consumers about Zillow and Trulia instead of raging war against them. If the consumer wants to be on those sites, it is our job to give the consumer what he wants, since we are a consumer-oriented industry.
Bottom line: If you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Debra B Albert PA says
I really enjoyed this insightful article. I blog often on Active Rain and have enjoyed all of their webinars. I really love blogging, reporting, translating. It is all about real estate. Debbie