How Do I Make Smart Choices?
The first step to getting the most out of syndication is understanding all things related to syndicating your listing data. This website is here to provide the information and resources to help you.
We encourage you to ask us about the MLS’s policies and tools to be sure you have all the information as you navigate the process, both as you get started and down the road. We’re here for you!
Tips for Success
One major way to begin making good syndication decisions would be to do your own independent research. Here are some ideas:
Know Your Company’s Position on Syndication
Become acquainted with your company’s policy on syndication. Unless you’re an independent broker/owner, your company most likely has established a position on the syndication of listing data to outside real estate portals. If you’re completely new to the world of syndication, start your research by understanding what others within your organization are saying and doing.
Ask a Friend
Talk to friends or family members outside the real estate industry who actually use these websites and learn more about their preferences. Find someone who has recently bought or sold a home and ask about their experience with using online resources.
Find out which websites they visited. Get a feel for which websites they went back to most often, which they trusted, which they didn’t and why. The large national sites are popular, but so are many local portals. Your clients may have valuable advice on which portals mattered most to them, and their answers may surprise you. Talking to your friends and family about their experiences will give you new perspective about how consumers view real estate information online.
Put Yourself in Their Shoes
Take a few minutes and pretend you’re shopping for a home of your own. Visit lots of different websites, run lots of searches and keep track of what you see – the good, the bad and everything in between. When you search for property on some of these sites by area or by neighborhood, how hard is it to find what you’re looking for?
Try searching for the same exact property from site-to-site and notice how the data is presented differently. Are you able to find the agent’s contact information easily? Is the site easy to navigate?
Seeing the world of real estate property searches from your client’s view will help you be better informed about where and how you want to syndicate your listings.