Wisdom from the silent majority

“Brokers don’t have a clue…”

That’s the sentiment expressed in the comments in Brian’s post on the new home search app from Chase.

The idea is that brokers don’t pay attention to where their listings are syndicated, even though they have plenty of tools to do just that, and then complain when they show up somewhere unexpected.

I don’t buy it. That thinking just doesn’t sit well with me.

See, we work with lots of really smart brokers here at 1000WATT. People who work hard, day in, day out, to do right by their clients and their listings. People who get the web. Smart people who make smart business decisions and who are conscious of all the tradeoffs involved.

So I was happy to hear from the folks at ListHub last week, who reached out to me to preview a new report (PDF link) that they are releasing today in conjunction with NAR’s Midyear conference.

The findings, which were compiled from a survey of more than 200 broker-owners and principal brokers, are pretty resounding:

• 83% were aware that they had subscribed to all of the publisher websites available in the ListHub network (there are about 500 publishers in the ListHub network, big sites like Trulia and Zillow and lots of smaller ones like Vast).

• 90% want maximum exposure for their listings.

• 85% want maximum exposure for their clients.

Bottom line? Brokers do have a clue.

Now, of course, the majority of respondents wanted publishers to follow broker rules on listings management and most want reports on how their listings were fairing online. This only make sense.

But, suffice it to say, they all see exposure of their listings as a good thing.

I call these folks the silent majority. They are mostly the people too busy selling real estate to get into online flamewars about the pros and cons of listing syndication. They just want to get a home sold. But the problem is, they are largely drowned out by the puff and bluster put out by a vocal minority of listing syndication alarmists.

Thankfully, ListHub has given these people a voice. (Granted, they have much to gain from promoting this point of view).

But here’s the thing. We should all be striving for Marc’s vision of listings ubiquity.

Because as the world moves rapidly towards a mobile, interconnected Internet of Things, and the long, slow demise of IDX and listing search on brokers’ websites accelerates – it’ll be the silent many that will ultimately be proved prophetic.