HomeGain messes with the narrative

The story of recent online real estate history goes something like this:

In 2005 Trulia launches, blogs bloom, and the consumer and professional lie together openly on the sunny meadow of Web 2.0. The lead companies that had dominated the scene start to look like snakes lurking in the shadows.

In reality, the story is not so neat. HomeGain's Agent Evaluator product rocked the transparency and consumer empowerment angles starting in 1999. Blogging holds great potential, but few real estate pros master the practice and produce measurable results. Brokers and agents continue to buy leads.

HomeGain's release of an "Agent Blog Network" today underscores the dissonant reality of online real estate. The idea of putting a blog on top of a lead machine is pretty jarring. It doesn't fit into the narrative many, including myself, have helped perpetuate. I like that.

The facts are pretty simple. Agents that find it cost effective to outsource their traffic building effort pay a little bit of money to blog in front of the 5 million monthly visitors to the HomeGain site. Consumers get yet another means of evaluating whether or not an agent has expertise and brains. Good deal all around. 1.0, 2.0 ... who knows?

Who cares? Congratulations to Louis and the HomeGain team.

-- Brian Boero