Unintended Consequences

WAV Group has been studying listing syndication for a long time. We have observed that the listing syndication strategy has been hugely successful at supporting the brokerage firm from exiting the expensive and largely underperforming newspaper advertising demand by sellers. The first week of the month is the period of time that I sit in on a number of brokerage management and board of directors meetings. At each meeting I am asked the same question: "Do sellers request newspaper advertising anymore?" The answer is a resounding "NO!"

The removal of the expense of advertising in the newspaper was a huge windfall for brokerage firms. One client removed $6,000,000 from their advertising budget over a period of years as they transitioned from print to web – which equated to about $100 per month per agent. Today, they have parlayed that savings into a suite of productivity solutions and online marketing and have dropped that number from $100 per month to less than $50. Better yet, the results are better. Today consumers ask their agent how they are going to market their company online, not in the newspaper. It is a huge win for all parties concerned.

WAV Group consults not only with brokerages but also with MLSs. MLSs want to deploy strategies that strengthen the participant and subscribers' connection to the consumer, and listing syndication is an important service. Some MLSs do not agree, and have dropped listing syndication altogether taking the stance that the consumer has many options to access real estate listing content on agent and broker websites. Who needs portals?