The well funded real estate data aggregating map mash-up, Zillow.com announced late yesterday the addition of a few new features, most notably, the ability for real estate agents and consumers to plant Virtual For-Sale signs on Zillows website.
They added a nice Wikipedia link to research relative real estate articles too, but the free listing feature embedded in such rich 3rd party content is now the early mover towards Real Estate 2.0 dominance. What are the future ramifications of such a service?
The NAR and their local cooperative MLS’s have to be mortified. Zillows audience reach capacity has been within range of Realtor.com, and this feature is sure to narrow if not close the gap.
By offering agents and consumers the ability to list their properties on a superior interface, Zillow immediately offers a far more intuitive and rich alternative to the local and traditional MLS’s and (Realtor.com). Some may say the accuracy of the listings will suffer due to lack of stringent listing criteria, but ive been in more than one MLS where the information was anything but accurate or helpful.
MLS’s have always been very private independent listing aggregators for hire. Their policies are more often about protecting the data within, than its actual quality or exposure. So in their own short sightedness, the NAR and MLS, and their privacy policies, created this ‘Day of the free listing’.
Some questions that are running through my head:
How long will it take for the other early movers to adopt similar policies? Redfin, Trulia, Google and a host of other mash-ups are well positioned to do do something similar, which can only catalyze and improve the paradigm shift.
What does this ultimately do to the traditional commission model? ‘Proprietary & exclusive listing services’, and the ability to charge for them, have been the cornerstone of a traditional Realtors revenue model since day one.
No doubt, this will all take a little time to sink in, and the clear repercussions are still a ways away from being seen…id like to analogize it to a deep ocean Tsunami, the initial tremor has been measured, now its just a matter of time before the monster wave hits home and revamps the entire landscape.
As consumer benefit awareness and the resulting professional migration begins to swell, are the days of the ‘pay to list’ MLS’s numbered?
The writing is more than just on the wall…its the end of the MLS as we know it…and thats not such a bad thing 
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