Google, Craigslist Do Real Estate

14 April 2006 - 5:00am

The internet giants have begun offering a range of listing services that could endanger realtor's domination of the market.

"Craigslist.com and Google.com, two Web sites that have fundamentally altered the way consumers buy a broad range of products, are emerging as places to shop for residential real estate, a development that in the long term could weaken Realtors' hold on home selling.

Listings of real estate for sale on Craigslist, a popular Web site featuring free classified ads, rose to 335,126 in March, more than triple the level of a year earlier. Google Inc., meanwhile, is testing a tool to help users sort through listings of homes for sale. Several more specialized sites launched in the past year -- including Trulia.com, Oodle.com and Propsmart.com -- offer free access to substantial numbers of listings."

Source: The Baltimore Sun, April 10, 2006

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Realtors

Realtors have hoarded and protected their information for far too long. In "Freakonomics" Steven Levitt statistically proved that they underprice the homes they list for us.

As this article states, they will be moving into an advisory role.

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The decision to abandon a property is a symptom of the loss of confidence. And while abandonment certainly affects confidence among surrounding homeowners, the most important question to answer is not "how do we deal with abandoned properties?" but "what is the most cost-effective way to restore market confidence, and how do abandoned properties fit into that picture?"