Bart Wilson

It's interesting to see that money still has to be raised by Trulia and Zillow to fuel their monthly burn rate and they are still chasing profitability. With gas hitting $5 a gallon soon, Indy Mac is dead now and taken over by the government, 400,000 homes are in foreclosure. Thousands of people have lost their jobs and have been grafted onto the rear end of the unemployment line. More than 74% of all new home searches begin on Google. Not Zillow, Not Trulia not HomeGain, not Realtor.com. Yet there are VCs out there willing to toss millions of dollars on bad business model like Trulia and Zillow. I don't get it. Bart Wilson

The sheer concept of a VOW was a stupid idea to begin with. Lock up the data so you get people asking for more information so it generates leads. Smart idea on paper but lousy in actual execution. Here's why: Customers aren't stupid. Next time home buyers are becoming quite educated. No one is going to register on a site when users can go to Broker Bob's website and search the MLS anonymously and for free. The plan for MLS's to survive now is to open up the doors and begin syndication and sharing their MLS data (albeit read only of course) with real estate marketing innovators who know how to put butts in seats and make the cash registers ring. Founder and CMO Voyager International http://www.Voyager360.com

Policing the word in commercial use: MLS isn't going to help at this stage of the game. It's so broad and in widespread use it is like Q-Tips, Xerox, Kleenex... the word: MLS is just as ubiquitous. The demand for private MLS server appliances is certainly out there. Small firms, entrepreneurs even bands of REALTORS want their own lead aggregators and willing to pay for their own MLS servers or real estate portals. Just look at eLance or Guru and see how many RFPs are out there for knock offs of Trulia.com, Kayyah.com and Zillow.com.