Regarding portals and listings, i.e. Zillow/Trulia/realtor.com, what do you advise your agents about advertising their listings?

Siciliano: We do syndicate our listings to those sites, and they’ll charge the agents. We go one step further, though, and contract with Zillow, Trulia and realtor.com to make sure our agents are the featured agents on those sites, so that if anyone inquires through one of those websites, those inquiries go directly to those listing agents. It’s really important to our company and our agents that they receive those, and that they don’t have to pay extra for that.

We can go back and forth about how we feel about MLS, syndicators and their growing influence. At the end of the day, the important thing is that we are representing the best interests of our seller clients with more exposure, rather than less. That’s why sharing listings with syndicators is probably in the best interest of the sellers and why we do it. The more exposure, the better.

Corral: At this point, agents need to keep up with the syndication sites. They need to purchase the ZIP codes, they need to present initiatives and have their profiles done well. Right now, that’s where the buyers are going.
With syndication, we’re buying our own leads. There are certain parts of the country where they don’t syndicate, and buyers are forced to go to a local real estate site and enlist the help of an agent. They can prospect themselves and do the self-certification and prospect for leads themselves, rather than buying leads from this giant that buys our leads and then sells to us.

It’s the same thing as newspapers and other publications were years ago. I use them and buy them because it works. Ultimately, we’re buying our own stuff.

Sobin: I think the question about syndication goes beyond what’s good for the broker. How do we embrace something that the consumer has clearly shown us that they want? Removing listings or not being on websites that consumers want to go to may not be in the best interest of our client, and at the end of the day, it’s our client’s best interest that we need to be addressing. I think we need to skip the broker-MLS relationship and really find a way to still work with these portals, because they are important to the consumer.

Companies put a lot of money into effective websites, and ease of search is important to people. I don’t think we can ignore them, or, just one day, say we’re not going to work with them and just be on an MLS. At this point, we’ve moved on from that idea, and now we need to find a way to integrate and be part of it.

There is a lot of talk about agent’s status as an independent contractor. What do you think will happen? How would you like to see this change, if at all? Do you think this serves the industry well?

Corral: Realtors are independent contractors. They’re small business owners, essentially. I don’t see that changing. I can see maybe those people who are on teams, perhaps they could be able to get health insurance and so forth to their members and those members who are not independent contractors anymore, but employees. If you want to own your own business, you have to keep that status as an independent contractor. If you want to be a part of a bigger team, that’s on you. Some agents, they need an umbrella and somebody who can do those things for them.

Once you’re an employee with a salary, or a salary base with commission, that’s when things change. It might be for people who don’t produce enough to sustain their own business – which most Realtors do – with the costs associated, like insurance and taxes, or Realtors who are high producing but have a hard time organizing their careers in that respect.

I think it’s good that people are independent contractors and have their own businesses, but there are people who seek or find work in a team with salary and benefits and commissions, and that’s what works for them. Some people need the insurance and the support.