Terabitz: I get it

Cops do not manufacture their own guns, make their own patrol cars or design their own uniforms.

Baseball players do not carve their bats, weave their gloves or harvest their own chewing tobacco.

Few artists create their own paint, brushes and canvas.

The business world is filled with examples of partnerships – vendors and their clients. They need each other.

Terabitz

I was skeptical when Terabitz launched. But after watching Joel’s interview with Ash, their CEO, I went back and did some research. Things cleared up for me.

Historically, real estate has been plagued by two issues:

1) Its reluctance to work with and support outside vendors

2) Its desire to dominate and dictate the experience for the client

Need examples? Let’s go back to the beginning.

– To the MLS book, which allowed but a mere pass through rather than a deep experience that would serve as the basis for a truly meaningful relationship.

– To modern day IDX search, which continues to dictate how the consumer browses homes by limiting the fields of data they can query.

– In the chastity belt placed around fresh solds – data that would surely help buyers make better decisions and mediate seller expectations.

– In the tiny thumbnails that require the viewer to exercise their imagination.

– In content — the boilerplate, templated, ubiquitous content seen on hundreds of thousands of websites.

Terabitz offers real estate a way out. And the ability to provide people with a choice to decide what information they want, and how they get it. The ability to provide clients and prospects a better experience. The opportunity to work with a vendor and a platform that is truly innovative.

I like that.
Actually I love that.

The average Realtor can’t build this platform. Or any platform for that matter. The average broker can’t. Most companies can’t. The ones that could, haven’t.

So what do you do? Ignore it? Pan it? Dispute its viability. Write negative commentary and play Monday morning quarterback on its revenue model?

I’m a homeowner. An investor. I’d want my Realtor to send me their Terabitz dashboard rather than the staid, tired, slow to load PDF, market report newsletter I’ve been getting for ten years.

And that’s all that should matter today. What the consumer wants.

If you were a cop, you’d want the best gun.
If you were a baseball player, you’d want the best bat.
If you were a Realtor you would want the best tools you could get to perform your job.

Wouldn’t you?

Davison