When local powers consolidate.

[Mert]

In Chicago a major brokerage bought a major seo site that was #1 for Chicago real estate. I am sure the price tag was very high. The question is what happens when the bigger local guys start to consolidate their powers and start owning the internet landscape.

[Jim Messenger]

Are you talking about http://www.greatchicagorealestate.com/? If so, what makes you believe that Brent sold the site?

[Mert]

Brent used to hire that site to a small brokerage in Chicago. The site used to look like minnesotas-real-estate.com and now the small box searches are replaced by the search engine of Dreamtown.com and I remember Brent telling us in another forum that he was planning to sell his website pretty soon but he was currently happy with his current website tenant brokerage (not Dreamtown) in terms of them running the leads which brings me to the conclusion that he sold that website to Dreamtown (the biggest online leads investor in the city). I am also sure it was not cheap.

[Jim Messenger]

Either it's a coincidence that Chicago Real Estate Leads, LLC (registered owner of the domain) and Dream Town share the same Attorney (Ivan Puljic) or, as you speculated, they did acquire it.

If they did, it's a smart move on their part. Why not own as many spots as you can in the SERPS???

I'm sure we'll see more acquisitions in the near future.

In answer your original question, "what happens when the bigger local guys start to consolidate their powers and start owning the internet landscape?", The answer is obvious. Those that are willing to COMPETE will spend the effort, time, and money, and will continue to have success. Those that don't ...won't!

[Mert]

Yea I can see price tags going up to 300K for that website. As far as working hard goes, I dont know if manual hard SEO labor can beat hard cold cash every time but we all will try our best.

[kensmith]

When the market slows you always see offices and other forces consolidate in any market. This is when the strong will get much stronger.

[DEUCE]

I knew you couldn't resist Mert, lol... This is the first place I've seen it talked about... is true as far as i can tell.

[Mert]

Identity of source was safe till you jumped in brother :-). The signs of the Dreamtown purchase is apparent from their MLS search plus the fact that two of the old realty's agents came back to interview with me. Really sad.

[DEUCE]

Originally Posted by Mert Identity of source was safe till you jumped in brother :-). The signs of the Dreamtown purchase is apparent from their MLS search plus the fact that two of the old realty's agents came back to interview with me. Really sad.

Yea, I only knew because of the search... I only may have been the first to notice. Have to keep an eye out on the competitors, lol... By the way I see you fixed that bad link on your home page - what a nice guy I am for pointing it out, lol...

What's sad about the old agents interviewing with you? Obv. it could have nothing to do with the acquisition right?