What if IDX Becomes Irrelevant?

Buyers want to know:

• What’s for sale?
• What’s the house worth?
• How’s the market?

IDX has been the central focus of an agent/broker online marketing strategy for a long, long time. It answers the “whats for sale?” question every buyer wants to know.

The latest Listing Bits podcast, and mention of Placester raising another $50M got me thinking about the topic of IDX.

I’ve long thought there is an argument to be made that IDX is not a worthwhile investment for an agent/broker (read this post from 2013). Many of those reasons are even stronger now than they were 4 years ago, with the continued domination by the portals. In fact, there is no IDX on Heidi Ward’s website (who I consult for).

It begs the question, what happens if…agents/brokers deem IDX NOT to be a critical piece of software to purchase? What if it’s deemed search is a lost cause simply not worth the investment to keep up with consumer expectations?

IF that happens — what replaces IDX as the central piece of software for every agent/broker?

I’d argue the new critical piece of agent/broker technology will combine listing alerts / analytics / CRM.

RealScout and Cloud Streams come to mind.

I’m not saying IDX WILL become irrelevant. Irrelevant is a strong word. That said, it doesn’t bode well for those software vendors who make their living by selling IDX.

At a minimum, a world in which agents/brokers don’t feel IDX is a critical investment is worth pondering — particularly if you’re a software vendor selling IDX.

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