There is a great, frustrated idea behind online, vertical-search, social networking real estate sites (or any site that focuses on a special interest) that I’m not sure the creators fully understand. So far, in my opinion (and, yes, it's a very, very humble opinion), the sites created have missed the mark – or they haven’t gone far enough.
The grand idea is a forum for learning and information-gathering in a cyber-public square much like the people of ancient Greece had where thinkers gathered to discuss the ideas of the time – to gather information and learn.
Except, now, instead of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, we have Funkydude22, DallasKitty and BobBobXX and various other cyber-monikers who hold forth and pontificate with no validity, or evidence, of their expertise or qualifications. It’s democratic and egalitarian. You have any one with half-baked knowledge of a subject projecting confidence in their intellectual grasp of a subject hiding comfortably behind the screen name DrKnowItAll, or some such. Greece in the olden days was big on “democracy” but it was still theoretical, and I doubt they were anticipating FunkyDude22 (these are made up names, and in no way am I criticizing any one individual who might own these snazzy names).
I have seen it written many times, and it’s by now implicit, that the web frees all of us small people to have a voice, and out of that amalgam of voices we will grow and learn and, as a result, democracy will truly be practiced rather than theorized. But anyone with a modicum of intelligence, who has spent much time participating in these cyber-public squares, realizes that not all voices are equal. It’s true that the internet has given a voice to many smart, soulful, knowledgable people who otherwise would not be heard, and this has been a beneficial result of cyber-public squares; however, it has given a voice to hatred, stupidity, misinformation, dishonesty and downright ignorance as well.
There is probably a place for this mish-mash, free-for-all, salmagundi of ideas and personalities and opinions, because it can be entertaining if you are into anarchy, mud wrestling, arguing and partial insanity – I have to admit, I find some places enjoyable to just let it fly – it’s cathartic in a way. But this can get old and out of hand, and it also can get away from purpose. I have found small online groups of people with common professions can better handle the freedom of free-for-all and actually create something of interest that is conducive to learning and bonding, but in bigger forums where there is a great mixture of backgrounds, professions, etc, and there is more participation from the general public who may only have a passing interest in the topic, it seems to get crazy and boring quickly, to no good purpose. Most people don’t have the time or patience to sift through gobs of craziness and misinformation to get to what they are looking for.
So what about purpose? Since we are concerned about real estate and it seems the goal of many online real estate sites is to give consumers a one-stop site to meet their real estate needs, it also seems that the purpose should be to provide reliable information that is easy to access and is useful in real estate transactions – a place to learn and come away from with valuable information. What would it take to build the perfect site, a national site that meets the needs of the harried consumer who wants good information and resources? How does a national site gather and maintain reliable information about local markets? How does it create a social network that doesn’t devolve into dumb and dumber? And, lastly, and most importantly, how are real estate agents to be usefully involved in this future mega-site? There are many sites that are doing a good job of advertising listings, and this may be the limit of their usefulness, but I don’t think so. What would the mega-site, that realizes there is much more to the universally important topic of RE than listings, look like, and how can agents help make it happen?