Searching for . . .

Apr 22, 2007 Michael Wurzer

Juxtaposition.

Those interested in MLS may find interesting Pat Kitano’s observation in Commerical Real Estate is Opaque that, “Yet without an ‘MLS’ or other real time space database, his [friend’s] experience [looking for commercial real estate] was a lot like 1980’s real estate search – the agent led him around to the spaces for perusal . . .”

  • Which juxtaposes nicely with Athol Kay’s observations a few days ago in How Did Realtors Become The MLS Weasels, that “I’m starting to think that realtors are actually getting a bad rap for having actually created the Multiple Listing System (MLS). Creating the MLS I might add through their own time, effort and funding. The primary accusation is that we are hiding the information some how, and forcing people to come to us to get the information.”
  • Which juxtaposes nicely with Stefan Swanepoel’s promotional speculation in REAL ESTATE TREND: How Do We Get To A National MLS? that, “Some think the solution will come from one of the industry’s aggregators. The logical player is of course Realtor.com, but media favorite Zillow is often mentioned. Point2 says they already are one. Others such as Oodle, Edgeio, Propsmart, BackPage or Live Deal say they could easily be one.”
  • Which juxtaposes nicely with Greg Sterling’s recent speculation that Fat Door (not yet open) may be yet another entrant into what is now becoming a crowded web of sites aimed at a “mix of real estate and virtual community and people search.”

With so many options for search and community surrounding real estate, are we circling right back to the days of needing someone to lead us to the right places?