Cyberhomes & Keller Williams Partner On Listings

Keller Williams announced this week that they are providing listings from their new KWLS system to Cyberhomes, a valuation site operated by Fidelity National Financial. A snippet from their agent announcement:

“Keller Williams Realty is an agent-centric organization and FNRES’s Cyberhomes business model supports this focus, making it a good fit for us and our associates,” says Keller Williams Chief Technology Officer, David Therrien.

“We wouldn't be able to provide this to our associates if we hadn't launched the KWLS last year,” he adds. "We will continue to build partnerships that will help our associates reach more consumers without spending a dime of their money."

I am very impressed with KW's commitment to listing distribution and some of the new tools they are empowering agents with. For those not familiar with KWLS, RisMedia has a great interview with KW's CTO, David Therrien about the system and KW's goals.

Back in 2000/2001 I worked with a company that was a trail-blazer regarding the concept of data control and listing distribution, our tag line was "Take Control". That seems to be the central theme of KWLS. It's a smart play.

Smart Moves in Minneapolis

Edina Realty gets it.

"Edina Realty President Bob Peltier announced ambitious plans Wednesday to tap into the growing pool of 20- and 30-something home buyers by beefing up the company's website, hiring younger sales agents and redirecting its advertising dollars to nontraditional venues. To move forward over the next five to 10 years, we have to be positioned differently than we have been in the past," Peltier said in an interview before taking the stage in St. Paul at the annual Edina Realty Expo."

Check out the whole story in the Star-Tribune. Note the mention that they will be acquiring Cyberhomes. Some times to beat em, you gotta join em.

"Make Me Move" = A New Lead Resource

I wanted to let the dust settle a bit before I posted on the news regarding Zillow's entrance into the world of home listings. How do I see it? If I were an agent or broker I'd be pleased as punch that someone with whatever's left of 57 million bucks in the bank and a darling of the PR world is now going to create a new resource for me to find new leads. It's called, "Make Me Move". Anyone who owns property that has been "Zestimated" in the Zillow index can now attach a price that they are willing to accept for the property. As Joel points out, it's not an original idea. In fact, I am still scratching my head at why the industry is buzzing like a hornet's nest that just was poked with a stick. Is anyone really that surprised by this? They had to do something. As I pointed out in a recent post, the online valuation space is already getting a bit crowded. If you're going to please the VC Gods, you better be able to stoke the coals, and this was the only play they had in the book to do it with.

From what I've seen so far, no has pointed out that this could be an agent's dream for generating leads. Zillow isn't going to work as the only marketing effort for a property any better than Realtor.Com or it's ilk has in the past. Call it a national MLS or whatever you want, it's still just one more point of distribution for listing data. Sure there are some nifty new Web 2.0 tools associated with it and I like them all, but at the end of the day, it's not a magic distintermediation bullet. In fact, the API's and others features of Zillow might just turn out to be some of the more effective tools in an agent or broker's arsenal of web features. Time will tell.

Greg Swann has an extensive write up on the issue. I'm guessing his recent cuddle up with Zillow has him close to the top of the pre-IPO friends and family list. His tone has changed completely regarding Zillow. He still holds true to his original desire of disclosure regarding Zestimates. I'm not with him regarding his doom and gloom forecast for other listing sites like Trulia and Propsmart. I also don't see Zillow as being the 900 pound gorilla in this space quite yet. We still haven't heard from the real 900 pound gorilla in the AVM world. They have billions with a B and they own what Zillow doesn't. Only time will tell if Zillow's traction helps them maintain dominance in this new space.

I'll wager there are creative real estate pros that realize that real estate is always going to be local and will figure out how to convert "Make Me Moves" into new clients all the while gearing up to add their listings as just one more point of distribution in their marketing plans.

Valuation Saturation

We have another entrant into the world of online AVM. Joining Zillow, Eppraisal, Visient is Fidelity. Fidelity has branded their service "Cyberhomes" and launched Wednesday. It was just a matter of time. I'm sure with the coverage First American has with regard to AVM data, it won't be long before the pool rises again.

The site has a Web 2.0 look and feel, and of course, is branded as Beta. I'm pretty sure there's an unwritten rule in the Web 2.0 space that says no matter what condition your code is in, call it Beta. According to the article I read in Inman, they've been working on the site since June. The site already has banner and skyscraper ads.

One of the quotes from Fidelity's CIO in the Inman article said:

"We think the right way to (market) this is through the real estate industry and through our affiliates,"

The Cyberhomes web site says

Now you have access to the same data the professionals use. It's easy, free, and instantaneous.

Cyberhomes is a domain name that has been in use in one form or another starting in 1997 by FNIS. It was an early entrant into the world of real estate portals. If you visit the Internet WayBack Machine you can see the different derivations of how the domain has been used since then.

It will be interesting to see which players and eventual business models will emerge as victors in this new web category.