No that's not me with The Hoff and a GSA. It's Google's UK Sales Mgr.

RealSearchUSA.com will be a network of Independent brokers connected by a unique user experience - a natural language Real Estate search engine. Our goal is to create a true consumer benefit:  A Google-inspired (and powered) natural language search experience that leads to a good, local independent broker.

The  success of our network will be determined by Word of Mouth (or, more accurately, Word of Email, Word of Facebook, Word of IM, Word of Twitter…). Here’s the thing about that: We, as the technical force behind the network, have no control over what happens after we hand a homebuyer off to a broker, but that is the part of the experience that will drive WOM for both the broker and the network.

Since we work on an exclusive territory basis to preserve the competitive advantage a unique user experience provides, we need to be sure that we are working with the right partners if we want to see that WOM, so we are being selective about who we hook up to the network.

That’s why I am announcing RealSearchUSA here on BHB . If we can network BloodHounds together at the Search Result level, not only would we be off to a good start, we would be taking concrete steps to strengthen the independent brokers who are poised to shake up this industry whenever a recovery gets going.

In most cases, we can place a Google-powered Real Estate Search box on an existing Web site, as we have done here for Mike DiMella at Charlesgate Realty in Boston. Think of it as an upgrade to Search, which is the function that most Real Estate Web site users are looking for in the first place, but here is the kicker: This search function will also make you a node on a network of independent brokers like you.

Allow me to explain the node thing:

We build Real Estate Search Engines using Google’s Enterprise technology. Our goal is to provide the best Real Estate Search experience for people who like the way Google works.

In January we tried something new: We created a “Search Engine Referral network” by decentralizing one popular domain and using it as a hub to direct traffic to localized Search Engine domains, AND we assigned every listing in our database to just ONE of those local domains.

As you would expect, the numbers for the local Search Engines shot up at the expense of the hub, but here’s where it gets interesting: There was a corresponding increase in direct Google Organic Traffic. 70% over 30 days in one case.

Based on what we know about Google’s PageRank, I thought configuring the sites this way would have an impact. I was not, however,  expecting such a large bump so quickly.  The beauty of it is that the bump consisted of highly targeted traffic because the vast majority of that Google traffic landed on a property detail page after a fairly specific search for that property on Google.

It makes sense:  Since the local sites only have local listings, and they refer people interested in a listing in another area to the appropriate local site at the search result level, we have increased the relevance of each site as it relates to local Real Estate and given the GoogleBot a way to see that. Google craves relevance, so it sends traffic.

It’s Google 101 and,  other than our technology (and Google’s), the only other thing this strategy needs is a network of brokers who understand it, and therein lies the opportunity: This is a classic disruptive scenario where a small, nimble technology company can team up with small, nimble businesses to exploit an opportunity faster than the big guys in the industry can react to it (trust me on that). And this is a great economic climate for disruption.

In the beginning, the benefit to an indie broker is having an exclusive on a familiar, Google-powered user experience and the SEO tools that go with it.

In the long term, If Web-smart Independent brokers are, as I suspect, more likely to collectively provide better content and take full advantage of our SEO tools, as we plug in “nodes” to create a network of optimized Real Estate Search engines — who knows?  We may find ourselves behind the wheel of a large automobile.

But first we must find out, where does this highway go to?

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There are a lot of reasons we have decided to build a new network of Independent brokers. Some can be found in a recent post Greg Swan did about “getting your frolicking broker’s license” and in what Kris Berg wrote about going independent, but it boils down to this:

Progress in general, and Web 2.0 technology in particular, has leveled the playing field, eliminating most of the advantages the national Real Estate franchise offered brokers in the 70’s, 80’s, and through the 90’s.

When the franchises were getting started, they signed up a lot of local, independent brokers who saw the value of paying  a vig to  an organization that provided benefits  most local brokers could not provide on their own. National TV advertising, for example.

Media was a lot more concentrated in the 70’s, and the franchises used mass media to build brands by showing how a guy in a gold jacket could be your sherpa on the path to the American Dream. It worked. It was a simpler time.

Now, the world has changed, and the trend has reversed.  As the benefits of being part of a franchise have been eroded by the splintering of mass media, the easy availability of information, and a smarter (and more jaded) populace, paying that vig is no longer what it was cracked up to be.

The freedom to do business as you please while keeping more of your profit is a powerful thing.  Watching the franchises squander whatever vestigal momentum their brands have left makes the decision that much easier.

A loose network of Indie brokers, organized around a fun but powerful natural language search engine would provide a powerful consumer benefit: When a consumer finds a listing on our network, they will be connected to a good, local independent broker. There is real meaning in that for the home buyer who is lucky enough to connect with a Kris Berg in San Diego,  or a Jim Whatley on the Emerald Coast, or a John Kalinowski in Ohio,  or a Mike Dimella in Boston.

The tangible benefit of being reliably connected to brokers of this caliber is, in itself, more meaningful to the average person than any national Real Estate brand,  a fact that was confirmed by Consumer Reports last year.

So we have big franchises with meaningless brands, and  local brokers who bring meaning but don’t have a unified brand they can use to communicate that meaning to the public.

What if we changed that?

Can independent brokers and a handful of geeks crowdsource a new, national Real Estate Search brand?

If you are an independent broker and would like to join us in finding out, please visit RealSearch(your state).com (like RealSearchCA.com) and reserve an exclusive territory.

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