Why the Zillow/Trulia Merger Will Benefit Agents Forever

It was only a matter of time. The merger was inevitable. Zillow and Trulia operate the same business model and go after the exact same clients. Combine the two, and you have one very dominant consumer real estate search portal. Zillow's recent surge in market capitalization to $5 billion enabled the deal to make sense. Interestingly enough, Zillow and Trulia combined for only $341.2 million in 2013 revenues compared to the annual $12 billion real estate marketing spend. This is tiny percentage of the overall market, leading me to believe that they are not the end-all solution for agents. The other $11.5 billion is spent to make the industry go round.

The merger has done a great job of capturing the attention of the American consumer, and has successfully secured access to listing data across the country one way or the other. Essentially, they have democratized the housing search for consumers to the point of no return. Consumers now demand elegant search features optimized for every platform imaginable. Anything short of an addictive user experience is guaranteed to fail.

What does this mean for agents? Agents are now forced to market themselves beyond the gatekeepers to the MLS and become local data and homeownership experts. Anything short of this becomes extremely difficult to communicate your value proposition to new clients, specifically Millennials. As the consumer becomes more tech savvy, agents must provide insight that cannot be easily found on the portals or Google.

The point I want to stress is that success in real estate is grounded in relationships, and from my experience growing up in the business, relationships continue to remain the one constant--no matter what technology, the economy, or any other external factor is doing. On next page are three tips to win business with the modern real estate consumer.