Things are rapidly changing and developing when it comes to how we expect to list and view real estate listings online.  Some of the internet’s first major players are becoming obsolete and the future for many of the Web 2.0 next generation sites looks a little bleak too.

Why?  Well, except for some of the major markets, they’re not presenting enough options to potential buyers.  In other words, they’re only showing a tiny slice of the big pie of what’s actually available and listed on the market. 

Buyers want to see more.  Over at 1000Watt Blog, Brian Boero recently had a post, “Online real estate: It’s anybody’s ballgame” with some keen insight on the situation.

We know — and have known, for a decade now — that listings are what consumers interested in real estate look for most when they go online. We also know that serious home shoppers need to see darn near all the listings, not just some. So Trulia had it right. And decided to go around the MLS mess to get as many listings as possible.

Consider this carefully.  Would you agree with them that the serious potential buyers want and need to see as many listings as possible instead of just a scattered few?  I certainly would.  After all, most shoppers are in the screening stage anyway when looking at homes online.  It’s easy to weed out the undesirable options right then and there, but if a property was not listed at all, then it could never be an option regardless.

Getting on with Brian Boero’s big picture point, this all really isn’t a restriction to home shopping online, but rather a wide open opportunity for online real estate marketers to get it right.  He goes on to say:

[B]rokers have a huge opportunity right now. So long as the MLS beast persists and new entrants have to find workarounds, they have the goods. Why every brokerage company in America is not building a killer online listings destination in their market and driving all their marketing to it is still beyond me.

And it’s beyond me too… let’s fix the problem and get everything listed in completion.  If it means avoiding the dated MLS system altogether for online related usage, then so be it.  Whatever it takes, right?