The MLS Coffin – one stake at a time

And this is a big one.

When I was at the Virginia Association of Realtors Legislative conference a few weeks ago, I sat in on a presentation that touched on the NAR MLS working group on which I had the privilege to serve. At the table I was sitting, several of my classmates from the Leadership Academy were a bit confused – it’s hard for two people to compress months of meetings into twenty minutes – and this is the example I gave them:

What if Keller Williams, Century 21 and Re/Max decided to upload their listings to Google or Zillow or Trulia rather than to their local MLS, or even better, kept them locally, but stopped sending them to Realtor.com?

It is starting. This type of innovation makes me seriously consider a move to KW.

For those of us at Trulia, we are excited to announce our strategic business agreement with Keller Williams Realty. This is the first of its kind for Keller Williams; part of their company wide initiative to provide more cost-effective, innovative online advertising opportunities to their 77,000+ brokers and agents. When all is said and done, home buyers will be able to search through 100,000+ additional property listings on Trulia.com.

Or – Is Trulia’s true competitor Realtor.com?

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7 Comments

  1. Antonio Ciccarone February 19, 2007 at 19:55

    very interesting. i work at a california aor and see the good fight of blocking trulia and sites like it. wow.

  2. TrvlnMn February 19, 2007 at 21:18

    It wasn’t until recently that I realized realtor.com was also NAR. It kinda puts the whole issue into a different light for me.

  3. Kevin Boer February 20, 2007 at 01:25

    This was quite the coup for Trulia. Smaller companies like Trulia, without the NAR bureaucracy and legacy to maintain, have a better future than does Realtor.com

  4. Julie Emery February 20, 2007 at 15:08

    Jim,

    As I’m in the midst of contemplating a move to KW myself your comments are interesting and timely! Of course!

    Julie

  5. Apella February 21, 2007 at 23:50

    I really think that the days of the NAR MLS are limited. In time MLS will be global and free.

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