In the information age we are seeing that information is important
information can often mean the difference between life and death. what you know and when you know it is critical. And nobody knows this more than Google.
However Google as you know doesn't charge for its informaiton. They offer all their services for free. They make money on the backend through advertisers
This has strarted a trend that eveything should be free on the interent. Now I'm sure a lot of people don't like that. Stock Brokers, Flight Agencies, and anyone else who used to sell information.
Now for real estate agents the Free trend has been used by zillow and trulia to put their listings on their sites for free for buyer to look at.
Are agents losing control? not necesarily. The best agents know how to use these tools to their benefit.
which brings me to why not offer the MLS for free?
Blasfemy? Think about it. The reason why information on the internet is free because the cost to disperse and produce it almost zero. see Chris Anderson's Free.
By offering the MLS for free real estate agents are now in the position to get more buyer leads. more referals and more happy customers. At the very least ifyou are a brand new agent with no clients, you need to offer the MLS for free.
Free is the best way to get clients in the information age.
To place a listing costs nothing more than 5 minutes of your time if that. What you can get for this 5 minutes is amazing.
