Ed Freyfogle reviews Inman Connect

Guest post by Ed Freyfogle
Last week I ventured across the pond to the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference in San Francisco. It was a great chance to learn more about the US property
market, with all the major players in one place at one time.

Despite the different market dynamics, there are several lessons to be learned and especially technology trends be observed from the US.

On the market side it was interesting to see how many different models there are in the US, with old and new players targeting many different niches like foreclosures, rentals, and for sale by owner. The US has its own eccentricities that make it very different from European markets. Most notably, the MLS (or Multiple Listing Service) is an odd industry practice with no obvious parallel in the EU markets I'm familiar with. The main point to be made here is how successful new web2.0 property portals like Trulia and Zillow have been despite working outside of the MLS system. Especially Trulia has succeeded in moving from start up to major industry player in only 3 years. As more established players battle with their legacy technology systems Trulia has claimed the lead in product innovation.

As is perhaps to be expected with such a large domestic market, there seems to be very little desire or emphasis on international expansion by the major US players. Even brands like Yahoo! Real Estate (by some metrics the largest property portal in the US, and a brand with a major international footprint), have no plans to focus beyond the US.

On the technology side of things I was struck by how often terms like 'twittering' came up in general conversation. Apple's new iphones seemed to be everywhere. Certainly, technologies like RSS and tools like blogs are increasingly being viewed as must haves by the agent community rather than just toys for the geeks.
Pay-for-performance marketing (specifically Google Adwords) has become a standard part of the agent's marketing toolbox. Everyone is working on improving their web presence with the emphasis on getting leads and turning those leads into clients.

Likewise, the past few years have seen a dramatic shift in thinking regarding listings syndication, spurred on by the current down market. The maxim that information wants to be free was clear in almost every panel discussion. As one panelist noted, "open is the new black". Numerous companies have sprung up to help agents to distribute their listings. This emphasis on user centric services was reflected in the choice of Craig Newmark, founder of phenomenally successful classifieds website Craigslist as keynote speaker. Newmark estimated that his website generates in the range of 4 billion (with a B) pageviews per month in the real estate category alone. The major lesson here is that the increasingly sophisticated end users are demanding increasingly sophisticated websites. Those agent and portals that fail to adapt to the new environment risk becoming irrelevant over time. The timeline may be a bit slower, but I have little doubt this same trend is already occurring in European markets.

Thus it was equally interesting to see how few Europeans had come to partake of this glimpse into the future. Leading German property portal ImmobilienScout24 (and perhaps the willingness to look beyond their own borders is why they are the leading portal) were represented by Andreas Assum, responsible for online marketing. Also in attendance were the CEOs of REA group (owner of major European portals PropertyFinder and casa.it) and international property portal Properazzi. Sadly the only EU based property blogger I came across was Magnus Svantegård of the believer, who has also posted his own summary of the conference.

In conclusion, a very interesting week, well worth the trip. I think the European online real estate industry can only gain by increased exposure to the lessons from other markets.

Ed Freyfogle is co-founder of Property search engine Nestoria

Photo available create commons copyright from user livenature at Fickr