How would you solve this problem?

[ProcessPro]

My aim: I want to build a Zillow (real estate listing site) for a certain region I have my eyes on. They have lots of real estate companies but not a single place with all the listings.

My problem: I'm not sure how I can get the first few clients. I was thinking of @Fox's approach to sell using past results and offering free value first, so I plan to bring results to a few clients first then use those results to sell to the others. I'm also considering something @Andy Black said in one of his videos where he called businesses already having customers for them (as opposed to, 'hey, if you work with me I might be able to bring you more business').

Combining these two ideas, I am thinking of building my zillow, posting some properties from a few realtors, running ads to draw traffic, then only when I can say, 'hey, I have some people interested in X,Y,Z properties, here is their information' do I approach the realtors. My big problem with this idea is that it's probably not legal to just copy a few property listings belonging to someone else. Can you think up any other way(s) to approach this?

 

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[Akeem]

You've probably already thought about these, but just to offer you a suggestion or two:

• Have you tried reading the realtor's policies on affiliate marketing? Perhaps some of them have some sort of policy in place - which is something that would be of use to you.
• Although web crawling is frowned upon, and potentially illegal - you can always simply approach the realtor in question and give them an idea of what you're doing and they may decide to give you permission to crawl their listings.

 

[ProcessPro]

You've probably already thought about these, but just to offer you a suggestion or two:

• Have you tried reading the realtor's policies on affiliate marketing? Perhaps some of them have some sort of policy in place - which is something that would be of use to you.
• Although web crawling is frowned upon, and potentially illegal - you can always simply approach the realtor in question and give them an idea of what you're doing and they may decide to give you permission to crawl their listings.

Thanks for your suggestions Akeem. I'll look to see if they have any policies on affiliate marketing. If not, I'll have to take the second route.

 

[Andy Black]

Start by trying to get people to a page who are looking to buy/sell a property in the target location?

The page could be a simple as:

Looking to Buy a Property in <Location>?

Contact Bob on <number>


If you can’t get anyone to the page then it doesn’t matter what’s on the page.

 

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