ChoiceA is a new site for do it yourself, or For Sale By Owner, real estate listings. It's got a nice, simple interface that makes good use of new web technologies and it's quite pleasing to peruse the limited listings collected prelaunch. Those listings are free to post and so far are primarily based around the Pacific Northwest of the US.
Reators, though, may prove to be a case study of one of those industry roles that just can't be replaced by the internet.
As nice as the site is, real estate may not prove to be an industry that the internet is able to totally disintermediate. I asked Joel Burslem, founder of the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog, for his perspective on ChoiceA and its goals; he was dubious about both the large-scale viability of the For Sale by Owner market in general and the ability for any website to succeed in it.
"Are the services of realtors worth 6%? Are there some unscrupulous people in the business as realtors? These are important questions to ask," he said, "but this has been tried many times before. Past experience and market surveys show that the vast majority of people engaging in real estate transactions will end up using a realtor." Burslem cited a compelling list of reasons why this was the case, including the complexity of the deals and the importance of scaling and visibility. He said that real estate megasite Zillow, for example, tried to focus on for sale by owner listings at the beginning but quickly learned that it had to go after realtors if it wanted to offer a substantial number of listings at all.
What does ChoiceA say about this? This angel-funded, two man startup says they believe it's only a matter of time until someone upsets or at least challenges the dominance of the MLS listings and professional realtors. They are putting their emphasis on an accessible user interface and they allow cross-posting to Craigslist. Using Amazon web services, ChoiceA is keeping costs low to hold out until the market shifts. They are planning on running some advertisements on site and may in the end take a very small fee for listings.
The interface really is nice, including a drag and drop favorites list, a nice lightbox gallery and various sliders and maps. It's nothing revolutionary but it's very friendly. The company also went to great lengths, they say, to put together web friendly legal forms for real estate transactions in various states. They encourage people to hire a lawyer to review the documents they use throughout the transaction - at a fraction of the cost a realtor would incur.
Will people do it? They might, and ChoiceA could be the one effort in many to succeed in this big goal of disintermediating real estate, but unlike some industries like music and movies - cutting out the middleman in this market will be no easy task.
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Hi, it's David from Zillow,
Joel actually has it wrong (about Zillow.) We launched Zillow's listing service a year ago as a product for real estate agents (and private sellers, but primarily listing agents.) Many of the busier agents have subsequently asked us to automate listings via feeds received directly from their brokers - so, that's our next step.
Posted by: David G from Zillow.com | October 24, 2007 10:47 AMIt's about time someone did this, I hope these guys succeed.
Posted by: Mike | October 24, 2007 11:09 AMJust to clarify my comments a bit and reiterate what David said - Zillow had focused on getting individual listings (including FSBOs) from agents and homeowners initially but recently switched gears to allow brokers to more effectively push all their listings into their database.
Posted by: Joel Burslem | October 24, 2007 11:31 AMI am going to use it. Simple, powerful!
Posted by: lavis | October 24, 2007 3:12 PMI put my house on choiceA it was very user freindly and it's time we all started saveing thousands of dollars on the sale of our homes rather than giveing it to realators for doing very little work!
Matt
Posted by: Matt | October 25, 2007 5:36 PMJust to clarify, the data on the site is live, not sample data from pre-launch.
Posted by: Jeffrey from ChoiceA | October 25, 2007 7:11 PMAs a Real Estate agent, I would like to say that I put in untold hours of work on each and every listing that I acquire. I work tirelessly for my clients. It takes time and money to market my listings, not just locally but around the world, attend required training, Real Estate law classes, Internet marketing, and a multitude of seminars just to keep on the cutting edge for my clients. Few people are aware of the high costs of doing business as a Real Estate agent. I appreciate each and every client who puts their faith in my ability to market their property and work diligently to keep that trust.
Posted by: Barbara Calkins | October 26, 2007 10:08 AMI'd like to see innovation in the marketing and sale of real estate as much as anyone, but I don't think ChoiceA is offering much that other small "circulation" websites have offered for years at low or no cost. ChoiceA doesn't address the main obstacle to selling a property, having your listing seen by agents and buyers. For that MLS and Realtor.com remain pre-eminent.
Iggys House Realty (iggyshouse.com) is a new company created by early innovators in online stock trading. Similar to E*trade, the idea is to cut out the middle man, provide the consumer the tools of the trade, and compete for customers by offering lower commissions. Iggys House provides sellers a free listing on Realtor.com in an attempt to earn the good will of sellers who will choose them as their buyers' agent when it is time to buy again. As a buyers' agent, the offer a refund of part of their commission.
If Iggys House has a weakness for sellers, it is providing the information that informs pricing decisions. For comparable home sales, market trends, and sales history information Zillow (zillow.com) is the best site I have found. I'd like to hear about good resources for pricing if there are any.
Posted by: Dan Collier | October 26, 2007 1:13 PM