Trulia, Syndication, Confusion

Sami Inkinen, co-founder of Trulia, has written a blogpost about the future of syndication where he raises some important questions about where the real estate industry is headed with distribution of listings:

Now that listing syndication has become a mainstream practice and “syndication sites” like Trulia have grown to serve millions of users, an old question has raised its head again, namely: Is syndication good or bad for me as a real estate broker?

In many recent conversations with brokers and industry leaders, it is clear to me that some people are frustrated and concerned with the direction of listing syndication. (Emphasis in original)

Sami goes on to make a number of points that ultimately fail to answer the question he posed, and further fails to support the conclusion he draws. Nonetheless, given the importance of Trulia to the industry, and the importance of Sami within the company, I think it’s worth reading the whole thing. (Note, you will need to skip over some of the more salesy aspect of the post and focus on the points Sami is making, rather than the promotion of Trulia and its products….) I’ll be here, after the jump.

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