Real Estate Portals To Avoid Beta vs VHS Battle

Trulia, Yahoo and Zillow announced yesterday that they intend to develop a common weapon to fight each other for online eyeballs. Agents rejoice at opportunity to speed up their own demise.

From Inman News:

Nearly a dozen Web sites that aggregate for-sale real estate listings — including Trulia, Zillow and Yahoo! Real Estate — have agreed to adopt common data standards that will make it possible for brokers to send a single listings feed to multiple Web sites.

The companies partnering to develop the new data standard, which will be based on the XML format and launched later this year, are working with the Real Estate Standards Organization to make sure it is compatible with the existing Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS). The standardized data format will include price, square feet, bedrooms, bathrooms and additional descriptions of each listing.

Homes.com, Homescape, Oodle, Point2 Technologies, Realestate.com, Vast.com and vFlyer are also adopting the standardized feed format, which is open to “anybody else who wants to join us,” Zillow spokeswoman Amanda Hoffman said. “It’s a statement to the community — we want to make it easier for you to get your listings in front of as many people as possible.”

A spokesman for Realogy Franchise Group said its Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA and Sotheby’s International Realty brands plan to adopt the new standardized format.

“The opportunity for such wide distribution of our listings is an important facet of our marketing strategy,” said Realogy spokesman Craig Cuyar in a press release. “It’s clear these partners are attentive to the needs of our industry.”

Greg Swann at Bloodhound has an indepth overview with comments from Zillow and Trulia.