When you ride the donkey backwards what you see is what you get! How can the national listing aggregators expect profitability when they are working in opposition to the architecture of the internet? To put it simply, the net is an un-centralized machine. Power flows from governments, corporations, and organizations to the extremeties. Independent, individual, decentralized web sites are the key to success.

The phantom spokesman for HomeAdvisor indicated that the listing services are providing a valuable service for MLS members, too-free advertising and promotion on the Internet, a fact which has gone unappreciated by some Realtors who are CONFUSED at why they should pay marketing fees associated with putting their listings on the internet. CONFUSED? I think not!

Realtors, as opposed to dot-coms know the realities of the market and make realistic business decisions in order to remain profitable.
We get paid when we close a transaction. Dot-coms get paid well even when they lose money. Go figure! Now lets take a poll on who's confused.

Do I have to ask why the national aggregators always brag about the number of visitors to their sites but never the ratio of the number of leads given to agents Vs. the number of visitors? Agents that I speak with across the country with rare exception are not getting many, if any, leads from the aggregators. So in answer to the Phantom of HomeAdvisor, the check is in the mail.

Good personal, independent, decentralized websites are far more productive to the majority of agents than are centralized aggregator sites, IMHO. Mine certainly has been. Agents can load their own listings on their own websites more cost effectively than they can on national websites. We have much more flexibility to present the information as the demands of the property require, as opposed to the one size fits all approach. I can create a link to my online listing presentation and instantly send it to thousands of listserver members. Can that be done on Realtor.com? I can place a text link in my printed advertising which points to the listing. Can agents who use the national aggregators do that? I can send twenty-five photos and text descriptions of a listing via a hyperlink through email to hundreds of targeted agents with one click. What aggregators let their agents do that? I can send multi-page listing announcements to neighborhoods via email that contain video, music, and voice. Do any of the national aggregators do that?

Decentralization makes sense to agents. We simply do not need the national aggregators. So if I might whisper a little prayer tonight it would be something like this, "Please keep the blinders on the rider and not the Donkey, and I promise to keep making more and more profit."

Amen.