Zillow Announces Smart Search 

Zillow is at it again.  They’ve introduced new capabilities for their search, and you can read about it at their media room.  Here’s an excerpt from that Smart Search news release:

” ‘Smart Search sets a new standard for online real estate search and solves one of the biggest challenges on the Internet today by taking an enormous amount of data and displaying it in a way that is easy to digest and meaningful to each of our users,’ said David Beitel, chief technology officer at Zillow.”

Some of the new capabilities have to do with providing additional real estate market information, map searches and easily accessible community information on the home search pages.  It seems to me that this could have ripple effects throughout the industry.

Will Third-Party IDX MLS Vendors Start Responding?

I think that third-party IDX MLS vendors should be seriously considering expanding their offerings, too.  Wolfnet has a great map search.  And, Birdview incorporates mapping and community information.  It seems to me that the third-party vendors should be planning to offer capabilities that rival some of those offered by sites like Zillow to keep their customers competitive.

How Will Agents Respond?

As there is more information available online, agents will need to consider ways to keep pace with their own websites.  Depending on your budget, you have a number of alternatives:

1. Take advantage of paid services, some of which have been discussed on this blog before, including real estate market condition information from Altos Research, or school information from GreatSchools.net.
2. Create interactive maps to give your visitors an overview of a neighborhood.
3. Provide links on your community pages to free online resources.

There are lots of sites that provide free information.  It’s not as effective as having the information integrated into your site, but if your budget doesn’t allow for that, consider some of the freebies.

For example, The RealEstateJournal has information on schools and communities.  You’d have to open those sites in a new window, but at least with the Journal, it isn’t as easy for your visitors to find other agents.

The best way to take advantage of the online sites is to provide a link to a specific page rather than expect your visitors to flail around on a second site to find what they need.  For example, if I had a page on my site about Peachtree City, GA, I’d provide the following links:

Learn more about Peachtree City, or research local schools.  Those two links go directly to the pages your visitors want to see.  It’s a simple process to do the search yourself, then copy the URL in your browser’s Address Bar once you find the page you want.

And, the RealEstateJournal is just one of many sites that provide community information.  The resources are out there.  

Stay competitive and start including a broader range of information on your website!