March Madness, Competition, and Upstream

Ahhh... March Madness. I love everything about it. Team dynamics, competition, and the sheer will to win. If you give any credence to the media, you'd think there's a game to be won within the real estate industry for control of data management. That's understandable. Looking at how our industry has evolved over the past 18 months, it's clear that most data vendors and portals also see the need for an "Upstream-like" data repository. Many vendors and portals (and some MLSs) have either introduced one or are working on one.

So we seem to have a consensus that property data must be better managed, and perhaps in a single source location. The question is no longer "Is it needed?" but "Who is the best entity to create and operate the database?" Every entity creating their personal "Upstream" is fighting to obtain a significant critical mass of data to ensure they become the standard for data management and control.

Vendors will position their "Upstream" as a free (or nearly free) incentive to leverage your collective data to get you to commit to their products and services. There is no free lunch: what is given away up front always has a price somewhere down the line. It's a familiar model that portals have used to move into a control position for consumer website interaction. As an industry, we gave up that position of control and, without efforts like Upstream, are precariously headed there again.

To be clear, these are not evil companies trying to destroy our industry. They rely on our industry for their livelihood, but make no mistake: they do not share our goals and objectives. They are looking to monetize the data for the benefit of their company, while brokers are looking to manage the data to benefit our industry. There's nothing wrong with either, but the two will not always be aligned. The good news is that both a for-profit and an industry centered solution will benefit the consumer in cleaner, more accurate data so consumer benefit need not be drawn into the conversation.