In a recent article by John Cook on Geekwire (January 31, 2012 at 9:23 am by ) he talks about Jim Abbott, president of the Abbott Realty Group in San Diego, who recently announced plans to pull listings from Trulia, Realtor.com, Zillow,
The best quote here is:
“All listing syndicators have one thing in common: They act as middlemen and post our valuable listing data alongside the contact information of other agents and brokers who rent ad space on their sites,” Abbott said in the video. “Usually, they do this with our permission, while claiming that exposure of our listings in any way on the Internet is a good thing. Time and results prove that it is absolutely not.”
So if this isn't working for him... why are you still doing it?
Giving away your front page position to a 3rd party is not becoming the wrong thing to do. For them to use your listing to pump up their site... how does this make sense for you. If instead you put your efforts into creating your own SEO (Search Engine Optimization) program your benefits far outweigh the negatives.
Every study shows that consumers start at a search engine and then find these 3rd party sites.... they don't start at these sites. The question is, are you, and everyone else in your office, going to band together to fight this?
Read more about this:
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/hear-real-estate-vet-pulled-listings-biggest-real-estate-sites-internet-zillow-ceo-spencer-rascoff
