And not just any player.  Google has joined Zillow.com in the real estate fray. 

Lots of news recently on non-traditional players in the Real Estate Industry moving into waters that traditionally has been jealously guarded by the National Association of Realtors.  From the if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em file: Google has just announced a partnership with the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) to upload Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data for the Houston Area. 

HAR runs www.HAR.com, the excellent online database and one that I have some personal experience with as a Houston based real estate investor.  This is a story I’ll follow with interest. 
The various blogs and forums are abuzz with news of the Zillow.com announcement, but this one, potentially, is more interesting.  The question at hand is what kind of strategy the various MLS services can put together.  Seeing that they’re a loosely connected confederation of semi-independent participants it seems to me that a unified approach to keep the dot.coms of the Zillow/Google ilk out of the sandbox isn’t going to work.  Seems that HAR has seen the writing on the wall.  So the reaction over the next few months from the other major metropolitian areas will be an interesting indication of things to come.  Will HAR be viewed as the scabs crossing the picket line?  Or, will they be the first of an exodus?

An article in the Houston Business Journal makes an interesting point of the fact that Google’s first major foray w/ an MLS system is occurring in Texas, as opposed to their home turf of San Jose.   This might have something to do with the vision of Bob Hale, HAR’s president and CEO who has a reputation for his interest in emerging technology.  It might also be a reflection that perhaps the real estate industry in California has a stronger view of it’s ability to resist future changes than we do here in Texas.  Interestingly, James Harrison the President and CEO of the Silicon Valley MLS comments “They (Google negotiators) are friendly and young, but they are not willing to work out a deal unless it completely benefits Google.”