For US listing brokers
Dear friends,
Thank you for your kind words following our US launch:
Property Of Google? No! The Google Of Property ; DotHomes, A Real, Real Estate Search Engine ; New UK-Based Real Estate Search Engine DotHomes Launches In US ; DotHomes Launches Real Estate Search Site In US ; UK-Based DotHomes Comes To America ; International Real Estate Search Site Makes A Move Into US ; DotHomes Launches US home Search Tool ; DotHomes.com Launches ; Are You Feeling Wealthy? DotHomes Enters the US Market: An Introduction for the Public and Realtors ; A Romantic Place To Live In Houston: Maybe You Can Find It With DotHomes ; DotHomes takes full text-search to the US ; UK property search engine aims to break into US market ; Real Estate Search Firm Relishes Housing Slump ; US release ; UK release
Much appreciated. Also, particular thanks to the astute folk, like Kevin, who quizzed us about the details of dotHomes, and rather forthrightly encouraged us to explain our offering.
Given some of the ensuing controversy (Lenderama, CBS5.com, InmanNews, GreaterTampaBayRealEstate), I’m going to attempt here a crude recap of my conversation with Kevin. If you’ve any further thoughts, please do let us know.
Right. So, how did I explain the service provided by DotHomes?
DotHomes provides listing brokers free and effortless leads directly to their own listings on their own sites.
Listing brokers currently put up their own real estate listings on their own Websites. And, we seek to allow consumers to find these listings as quickly and as easily as possible. We do not include the MLS listings which are to be found on any broker’s site for which that broker is not specifically the listing broker. And, we do not host any listings. There are no DotHomes landing pages. We link directly, and without any charge, to the original listing on the listing broker’s Website - replete with all the broker’s own content, branding, design choices, etc.
By curious coincidence another real estate search site launched in the US when we did, Roost.com. Of what I’ve been told, comparison with Roost perhaps most clearly draws out what it is that we’re seeking to achieve. Roost is aimed specifically at the buy-side brokers. It is a platform which permits any broker to buy a lead to any of the real estate listings on his/her own Website - whether the broker happen to be the listing broker for the specific listing or not. By contrast, DotHomes is aimed specifically at the listing brokers. To repeat: DotHomes provides listing brokers free and effortless leads directly to their own listings on their own sites.
Following my DotHomes introduction to Kevin, I wrote the following.
If I walked into your office with several folk looking to buy some of the properties for which you’re the listing broker, and I assured you that I would ask for absolutely no recompense ever, would you ask that I leave?
Kevin’s excellent response was as follows.
…To continue with your earlier analogy of walking into my office, with prospective clients for me in hand, and asking for no money in return.
That bit I would like, and so would most.
The worry that many brokers have — and this definitely has some legitimacy — is the following. Let’s say that to get to the point of walking into my office with these prospective clients, you did the following: (let’s pretend this is before the Internet came along)
1) Your business model was essentially to photocopy real estate ads in the local newspapers and aggregate them into a weekly magazine that you then gave out for free. To maintain a reasonable stance on “fair use” you didn’t take the whole bit of each ad, but only the very basics: list price, who the listing broker is, how many bedrooms and bathrooms, maybe one picture, and maybe 2 sentences of the description.
2) Included with each ad was the phone number of each associated listing broker.
3) So far so good. I love the fact that my phone is now ringing from another source — a FREE source, in fact!!! — of advertising.
4) However, here are my concerns…what happened with my listing after I put it in the paper? I’ve lost control of the process! I have no way of knowing whether you’re distributing your magazine (with my content) at bars, strip clubs, and other places that may not be in keeping with the branding image I want to maintain. I have no way of knowing that you in fact correctly transcribed the information, that you didn’t incorrectly list a 3 bedroom home as having 4 bedrooms. I have no way of knowing that you didn’t accidentally switch the pictures of two listings.
It’s that loss of control which would concern many brokers, and I definitely think there’s some merit to that argument.
This is a particularly good response. My suspicion is that Kevin’s hit the nail on the head, in outlining the concerns of the broker. In an attempt to allay the concerns, I suggested the following.
Let’s revisit the analogy. When I bring potential buyers into your offices, you’re entirely right: you have no idea how I’ve gone about soliciting new custom for you. Perhaps, I’ve been showing your listings in “bars, strip clubs, and other places that may not be in keeping with the branding image [you] want to maintain.”
In so doing, it is possible that whilst I have brought potential buyers to your door, at the same time I have also caused many other potential buyers to go elsewhere. So, it is quite possible that I’ve done your business more harm than good.
But, I must ask: is this really analogous? One of the most profound joys (and horrors) of the Web is its transparency. Let us suppose that the listings for which you’re the listing broker appear in the DotHomes search index. When a potential buyer clicks on a summary for one of your listings, then that potential buyer is taken directly to the listing on your Website - replete with all your branding, design choices, content, etc.. There are no “one-size-fits-all” landing pages on DotHomes which lock in your listing details. Users are taken directly from the search pages to the listing pages on your Website. Also, if you’re to use Google, or any other search engine of your choice, it will quickly become clear to you that we do not send your data anywhere else. DotHomes does not send your listing data to any third parties. The only thing DotHomes does is show summary snippets on search pages and then take users directly to your listings on your Website.
Ah, you say, but what about tomorrow? Today the DotHomes service is extremely pro listing broker. But, what if DotHomes changes tack tomorrow, and begins to act in a particularly broker unfriendly way?
Well, as a broker, do you advertise your listings in any particular newspaper? Let’s suppose you’ve been doing this for quite a while. And, let’s suppose that the real estate section of this newspaper has become rather popular over time. Now, what would you say to the possibility of a media mogul buying this newspaper tomorrow, and using the real estate section to profoundly undermine brokers and agents - perhaps using the section to promote a new real estate venture of his own?
The point of this analogy is to show that anything is possible tomorrow. Now, some might argue, that it’s not a fair comparison: that it’s far more likely that DotHomes would change its offering than a newspaper. But, I’d have to disagree. It would be more than just a little silly for us to bite the hands that feed us. Our service is extremely pro listing broker, because we know only too well that we rely on the listing broker.
If there’s something in our offering which listing brokers don’t like, then I hope they’ll get in touch and tell us. We’ll certainly do what we can to remedy their concerns. But, for anyone to seek to opt out based on fears of what tomorrow might bring, this seems a little odd. This is particularly so when one considers that there are several large companies offering online real estate search, so the odds of ever being reliant just on DotHomes is pretty small. So, it’s not even as though, as a broker, you’d be creating a monster from which you’d never be able to opt out down the road.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this. So, please do get in touch. The product will continue to evolve, guided by your input.
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