Scott Hoyt

Consumer beware! Any brokerage doing this has to justify to its consumers why limiting selection is a good idea. This may or may not be a great message to send to consumers, in my opinion it is very traditional, defensive and reactive. On the other hand I think when you are looking for loopholes to do business, as these newer companies are, it is pathetic. MLS was built for Realtors, insulting them with a $30 commission, although legal and I applaud competition, is just silly and insulting. Interesting to see how this plays out to the public, could be huge for the little guy, they now have more listings/content. Rock On.

Amazing post. You are correct on all of it, I was recruited to a big brand because of my success building a great small one. I didn't fit in, you can't get thousands of agents to change direction with out being able to conquer the fear of change. I love change but every conversation started with "whats the agent count" and dropped every initiative that any agent objected to. I would not be suprised if your client interviewed agent from this company, thousands of agents, thousand of different brands and offerings, my gosh. Consumers deserve better, a clear, consice message. You will give it to them, advanced independents will give it to them, Big Brands will convince themselves they are giving it to them and brag about it at the next recruiting appointment. While you are confident your brand appeals to your market, the big brands are trying to appeal to everyone all the time, and help their agents do the same, a recipe for disaster. Great point on the average transaction per agent, I think you may be the second person to notice. Entire brands have agents that average below four transactions a side! UGH! I love your passion.

It is great you brought up the fact that the MLS would punish you for the same mistakes many of these aggregators make. It is also strange that the MLS's will give away data for free to many of these sites, yet put paying customers like you under more stringent rules. Real Estate agents are the only content providers I am aware of that do not have strict standards on how their content is used or displayed. How many aggregators have a higher market cap than our country's biggest brokers? I think the providers are missing the boat. This worked in a Bull Market because many mistakes were hidden by great sales, maybe we were wrong. Thanks for an interesting post on a great topic.