A slow housing market is not the only concern for modern Realtors; in fact, it doesn't’t hold a candle to the larger, longer term threat looming. Some call it Web 2.0, and it will surely be the downfall of Realtors who don’t learn to leverage it to their advantage.

The nature of the Real Estate industry is about to change and it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top.

There are many examples of the effect of the Internet’s change in information distribution in other industries. A few biggies? The major newspapers thought nothing of Craig's List until it was too late; after realizing they were losing millions in advertising revenues they tried to jump on the bandwagon but were too far behind to ever have hope of catching up. The music and movie industry stood idly by while the likes of Napster devastated their profits.

Will the Real Estate industry fall prey next? Any information based industry is in jeopardy. The signs say the Real Estate industry is likely to be the next victim.

There is a general principle changing here, and grasping its meaning makes the future evident. Pre Web 2.0, the thought was that holding onto information tightly was valuable; possessing proprietary information put a business in a position of power. (In Real Estate, of course, this was the MLS.) Realtors had the information and buyers had to come to them to find the right house. Anyone in the industry knows that typical practice was to give out as little information as possible to draw in the buyer.

In today’s world that tactic spells disaster; as information becomes more and more readily available, buyers won't stand for the old tactics. They will simply go to whoever will give out the information. In light of this, all signs point to this one simple fact: whoever packages the information in the best way will be the victor.

Technologies are nearing a point where a buyer can simply shop on line for a house. A myriad of Web 2.0 websites are working hard at becoming efficient packagers of information. Zillow became one of the first to give buyers and sellers quick estimates of Real Estate value, as well as leveraging Google maps to enable potential buyers to see the lay of the land, so to speak. While the accuracy wasn't always right on, the concept most definitely was. Real Estate ABC quickly followed, taking the same concept and enhancing it; while Fisbos uses Craig’s List and it is quickly becoming a strong Real Estate listing site. Trulia is one to watch in the near future; they are attempting to scrape the internet for Real Estate listing information and put it all together in one convenient package. Their technology is growing by leaps and bounds and if it comes together as well as it might, they will become an even bigger player than they currently are. Others like Housing Maps are scraping the Craig’s List data and creating mashups to package the information into a convenient, easy to understand format for consumers.

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