@ SEO – Since there are only 10 spots on the first page of a search engine like Google, it is quite competitive to rank on the 1st page. The nationals you mention ARE COMPETING for high ranking & placement at a local level for the various real estate searches – and are competing against the individual agents that are striving to achieve a presence within their local market.
They are competitors for search engine visibility. And the listings are the ammunition for them to achieve those rankings.

@ Brokers not understanding consumers – As a consumer, how would you like to have a FULL FRONT PAGE ad in the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, on park benches, bill boards and a SuperBowl Ad on TV for your $50,000 condo that you have for sale? As a consumer, you’d probably like that, right?
So, why doesn’t your real estate agent provide that for you? Because if they did those kinds of advertising expenditures, they would quickly find their costs in advertising outstripping their net revenue – go broke and out of business.

The national listing aggregators are looking (primarily) toward the real estate agent’s wallet as their chief means for revenue generation. See this article here about the new “enhancements” that Trulia just rolled out: http://www.realestateindustrywatch.com/e0-editorial-and-opinion/

Syndication, whether it be sooner or later, creates a bill waiting to happen.

And I just googled Dallas real estate: You don’t outrank them. Trulia & Zillow both are on the first page. You are on page 2.

Coincidence? I think not.

And while you may lay claim to some of the secondary markets & long tails (for now), all you are doing is setting the nationals up to establish THEM as the authority, not you – and allowing them to hand you a BIG bill later on down the road.

Huge cost long term for :cough: “free” :cough: advertising today.

If your #1 priority is the seller’s absolute best interest, then why don’t you:

A) Refund 100% of your commission back to them, and work for free? After all, that would benefit the seller the most.

B) Place FRONT page ads on the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, etc to promote your listings? That certainly would help your seller get more exposure! Cause it doesn’t matter if its cost effective – as long as its good for the seller, right?

The point being is that you have to take reasonable measures to ensure your long term viability to have a business in the first place.

Listing syndication at the very least, creates additional competition for you for visibility in the search engines. And it has potential to create “bills waiting to happen” (through enhanced listing fees, etc that would get implemented at a later date). And if you add in the additional “features” that those sites provide by answering questions, etc – it all collectively helps establish THOSE other sites as the authority for your market instead of you. If a client has a question, they go to THEM and get the answer. Not you.

Everyone knows what it means to Ebay or Google something. If the national listing syndication sites can establish themselves as a “verb” in people’s vocabularly, they can then start charging you whatever fees they want, and your clients will insist that you pay it.

Think of it like a crack dealer giving away “free” samples – does the crack dealer expect to make a profit? Absolutely. Listing syndication is most certainly not “free”. It has a high price that just hasn’t been paid – yet. Right now, its all about jockeying for position to establish themselves (or you) as the authority for your market.

My practice to do both syndication and have a strong SEO presence. I have a few hundred first page rankings for various key word combinations, and it depends on which search engine buyers are using, whether they find me or my competition.

At the end of the day, who are you working for, are you compensated for your work and expertise when the house sells and if so, then do what will sell the house.

If the syndicators didn’t make money they would not exist. Just like a brokerage firm or any other company. They promote our listing for no charge to us and they get to sell ad space. No skin off my nose. Don’t buy the leads or participate in PPC if you don’t like it. If find those to be effective and will continue to use them.

Thanks!

The more content they get the stronger they can become. They are designed to sell traffic and or banner ads on there sties.