Stormy seas or smooth sailing for real estate search?

There are quite a few maritime references in a paper about the state of online real estate search, and even a reference to "a sea lion coming over the next wave" as a parallel to the industry standby "lion over the hill" metaphor for new competitors in the real estate arena.

"Tales of an Industry Lost at Sea," prepared by three industry consultants including the principals at Larson/Sobotka consulting firm and Focus Forward Consulting, highlights the many unknowns about the value of a variety of online search sites (see Inman News article).

For example, the paper poses, "No one has demonstrated the impact of national aggregator sites on broker site traffic, whether good or bad," "The true impact of public MLS sites remains unmeasured," and "Consumer expectations, preferences and behavior in the real estate search environment have not been studied."

In March, another real estate consulting group put out a paper that focuses on a public-facing MLS search site maintained by the Houston Association of Realtors, though the report released this month suggests that more study is needed covering many market areas to get a better grasp on the value of various search sites to industry participants and consumers alike.

The report suggests that Realtor trade groups, MLSs and brokers "still have not united behind a strategy regarding consumer real estate listing search on the Web," and that MLSs and associations should provide tools to make brokers the best source of real estate information for consumers.

In realizing the vision put forth in this paper, MLSs and associations could "assist brokers in making the best use of new communication channels, such as blogs, widgets and user-generated content."

So is the industry's approach to consumer-focused online property-search destined to be a total shipwreck, or are calmer seas in store?

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