01 Feb Syndication Issues in 2012

According to an article on Inman News, the coming year will see an increased scrutiny of the value of real estate listings syndication. The article discusses a renewed debate around broker control of listings data and its distribution channels and and a rising demand among consumers and real estate professionals for higher-quality data.

In November a subsidiary of HomeServices announced plans to pull listings from Trulia and Realtor.com. This syndication withdrawal may be among the first in a coming wave where brokerages and MLS decide to feed real estate listings only to sites that provide the most value.

The third-party real estate search business model does not reflect the brokerage business; they simply sell advertising in a manner of speaking.

The brokerage has thus far pulled its listings from Trulia, though the companies have devised a workaround that allows Edina agents to submit their own listings to Trulia if they choose. The brokerage is attempting to negotiate a similar workaround with Realtor.com before pulling its listings from that site.

Will listing syndication will be among the most controversial data issues in 2012?

Does deciding no to syndicate force consumers to the actual broker site, or miss the online target that relies on this exposure?

As the value of listing data is further assessed in 2012, multiple listing services may decide that value is worth a price, some experts said.

Taking control

If you don’t know where your listings are, you can’t track them. Rather than distributing their listings “anywhere and everywhere,” brokers are starting to take back more control of where their listings are distributed.