Is Trulia Using You To Compete With All REALTORs

I've already chimed in some of the other debates but ...  Trulia does offer featured listing and other advertising for a fee, so it seems an easy move up to charging for all listings, as Jim said "there is nothing to stop them from changing that model once they have reached the point of maximum domination of search engine results that they are going to receive!"  Maybe its a good idea to let Realtors know how they can give their listings more exposure without helping some of the sites like Trulia.  That is what most unsuspecting Realtors are doing right?  Trying to get more exposure thus posting on Trulia?  Well they can post listings on a variety of blogs, Craigslist, etc  I'm sure there are others that know much better than I a variety of ways to get better exposure without using Trulia.  Point is, Trulia is not a necessity.

What kills me is that some of the real estate companies out there are requiring that the agents upload their listings to places like Trulia.  I mean really, what are these supposedly educated, Tech Savvy people thinking at these corporate offices of places like Keller Williams, Coldwell Banker, Century 21...  I am not sure that the second two require it, but I know that they at least strongly encourage it.

Here is a counterpoint to think about. Is you job to sell property or run a website? True, a website is a good tool for selling properties, but do you need to be the one running it? Many Realtors place ads in various media, yet no one would expect them to solely operator those forms of advertisement. So why is a website different??

nmcquire:  Not sure I follow your logic.  Here is a example that I was thinking about, say I was a securities company (Stocks, Bonds, ...) Would it be wise of me to share openly my database of clients (There addresses, phone numbers, e-mail address) with a third party marketing company, who may have a interest down the road in providing similar services, or may already secretly have some interests now.  I would say, NO.  And to your question It is my Job to reach the public who wishes to buy and sell real estate.  Companies like Trulia, Zillow, Homes.com ... just wish to get in the way of that, and add more cost to the equation.  Now if these companies wanted to add a little more value, and I really mean a little value, they would stop doing the no-follows on the links to the REALTORs websites who are giving Trulia the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Additionally nmcquire I think you will understand when I tell you that I trust no one with the success or failure of my business.  Many Realtors® do not have the time or possibly the skills to manage their own websites, and that is OK, but they should participate proactively in the managment of their business. I would never give the keys to (or control of) my business to a total stranger such as Trulia.  That is just asking to be put out of business.  So I say, NO Trulia, you are playing a game with the REALTORs® and it is not a nice game at all.  Trulia it is time for you to run your program in a way that is fair to all concerned.

Nice post Jim!