There’s been some interesting conversation lately about whether brokers and agents should license an IDX feed for their website.

On the pro side: Almost all buyers start the homebuying process by searching for homes, so any agent who doesn’t promote listings on their site is a fool.

On the con side: Focussing on listings potentially relegates the real estate agent to interchangeable service provider status - just one of thousands using listings as “bait” rather than one’s services or points-of-view. Not to mention that a great real estate agent adds value well before the “listings” point of the journey.

Here’s our take: to quote Greg Fischer, a broker we’ve come to know and love, “…the homebuying experience involves a chain of decisions and events, and search is only one part of it. And it’s almost never the right place to start.”

Today’s prospective buyer isn’t suffering from an inability to search online home listings: their inboxes overfloweth. They are suffering, however, from an ability to know when to buy, how to find the right house for them, and more importantly, how to optimize every step in their own best financial and emotional best interest.

Conversely, most agents aren’t suffering from a lack of leads. They are suffering, however, from a lack of truly qualified leads, and tools that help them build better relationships with those leads that are mutually beneficial to both parties. They are also missing a way to maintain a low-effort but high-impact connection to “qualified but not quite ready yet” leads; or, legitimate buyers who will be ready to buy in a year or so, and are therefore well worth a bit of attention.

That said, the idea of pulling listings from a brokerage site actually speaks to a larger concept: “retraining” the buyer. In other words, while it may be in the buyer’s best interest to start from a place other that home listing search, that doesn’t match existing home-buying behavior.

So what’s a well-intended real estate agent to do?

Some agents, like Fischer, are trying to tackle what he perceives to be a “perception problem”.

“If I promote listings on my site, I’m sending a message that my role is simply to connect you with one of these houses. But guess what? You don’t need a real estate agent for that. An algorithm can do that for you,” he says.

Fischer’s strategy is to begin with a conversation with prospective buyers about what they are looking for - in far broader terms than the more perfunctory house specs.

“Then I get the chance to position myself as a true expert and consultant - which always leads to a better outcome. For both parties.”

Removing IDX feeds nevertheless feels risky and downright uncomfortable for many - if not most - agents. It seems to break the cardinal rule of business, which is, put simply, to give your customer what he or she wants.

Fischer’s counter-argument is intriguing. “Of course I want to give every buyer what they want. But also what they need. So I felt I needed our relationship to have a different foundation if I really want to make a big impact - both in their lives and within my own business.”

Fischer’s “cold turkey” approach is unorthodox but intriguing. In some ways, it echoes a growing sentiment amongst real estate agents that their relationship with the home-buyer is overdue for a “reset”.

But we’re wondering how many agents are straddling both options - literally “baiting” buyers with their old behavior (listing search) and trying to “switch” them to new, better behavior.

Is it working? Or does it still send the fundamentally wrong message?

Or, what’s the counter-argument to Fischer’s position? Any agents who swear by IDX feeds as the best way to get qualified leads and conversations started?

To IDX or not to IDX? Or is that truly the question?

6industry,