It’s 9 O’Clock: Do You Know Where Your Listing Syndication Has Gone?

In an age where technology is king, the concept of free and widespread listing syndication at first sounded promising to agents and consumers alike. “Listing Syndication” is the term used when third parties – including big Internet outfits like Zillow and Trulia -- take Long Beach real estate agents’ listings and put them up on their humongous national websites. Some agents like myself, are premium agents and pay a subscription fee for top placement of their listings.

Most real estate agents thought to themselves ‘Great! – now everyone in the country can see my clients’ home listing; we will get the word out nationally.’ And they were right about that, up to a point. But now some serious scrapping has broken out, and the details are something I think readers will find useful to think about. They affect what happens whenever you look for a Long Beach or Lakewood real estate property, or put your own property up for sale.

For Long Beach house-hunters, the biggest issue with syndicators is information that is either out of date or inaccurate. To any would-be homebuyer, sites like Zillow or Trulia hit them first: they’re always smack dab at the top of the Google or Bing pages when you look on the web. What isn’t apparent is that such websites don’t always offer all of the homes or data that might be available through a local real estate agent.

Rather than using feeds that offer each viewer the freshest information possible, syndicators lead those searching for a new home through a dizzy trail of listings. Moreover, if you have ever used them, you probably know that some of those have usually expired. Additionally, syndicators are real search engine hogs; Long Beach real estate agents have to battle against the Google-engineered pages to get a top spot. As a result, unless the listing agent dominates the Internet like I do, house-hunters may be unable to find what the Long Beach and Lakewood housing market has to offer.

Finally, it is not uncommon for consumers to experience confusion when it comes to listing prices. Syndication has in the past led to inaccurate information about prices to be published online, even duplicates with different prices. Yikes. 

Personally, I love the wealth of information this provides consumers.  Technology and free access to information are boons to us all.  To provide even more information to consumers, I offer a private VIP Home Search Service which is continuously updated from the Long Beach and Lakewood Multiple Listing Service … however, when it comes to buying a house in Long Beach and Lakewood, sometimes there’s no replacement for the human touch.  Call me anytime for the personal service only a local real estate agent can give you!

Allison Van Wig 562-882-1581 www.SearchOnLine4RealEstate.com