Home » Community » Groups » The Great MLS Debate --

Open the MLS

Posted in The Great MLS Debate -- By , Wednesday, February 27, 2008.

I am going to start off the discussion with some thoughts on MLS. NAR should step up and create a national MLS system. The time is now. Information could be standardized, sharing information would be easier. A national MLS could be the “place for all real estate info.” NAR is overly concerned about protecting information and its members. In many areas, you can’t advertise home sales statistics taken from the MLS. Meanwhile it’s public record and sites like Zillow, Housefront, HomeBytes, and others are giving the consumer the info they want and charging you to advertise on their sites. If I have an IDX feed on my web site I can not mix listings from other sources with MLS listings. At the same time, our local MLS provides feeds to Google, Yahoo, Trulia, and other sites. You can list your home on these sites Realtor or not. Is this a double standard? In many cases Realtors, the members who are supposed to be protected, are actually at a disadvantage because of all the rules we have to follow to protect ourselves.

With a National MLS system, information would be more accurate. Exposure would increase creating more opportunities.

You must login or register to post a comment.

 
Submitted by Marvin Corea - OpportunisticInvestment.com on March 1, 2008 - 10:57am.

Ditto!

I wholeheartedly agree.

They should look at the LoopNet model for commercial real estate. Let anyone that can pay have access to the MLS and post. The real value in a licensed real estate agent is not that they have the ability to post on MLS, it is their real estate skills.

If people want to post their houses themselves, let them! They already do it on Zillow and postlets.

Could it be that some group is afraid that its 1M+ members will start going away?

Marvin Corea
240-441-5086
Opportunistic Investment Sourcing

 
Submitted by Marvin Corea - OpportunisticInvestment.com on March 3, 2008 - 5:40am.

Loss of paying members is actually happening, see the OBJ:
membership falls 13 percent

Marvin Corea
Portfolio Dispositions

 
Submitted by on March 3, 2008 - 1:18pm.

NAR has the opportunity to position a national MLS as The resource for all real estate info. The network is build, and there are systems in place to insure the integrity of the information. Why not provide paid subscription type feeds for RE info to web sites like Zillow, Trulia and the rest? Similar to the stock markets providing stock info to Etrade, Ameritrade, Yahoo, and others. Let web sites/companies innovate with delivering the info. to consumers. In the end it is more exposure for listings which will lead to a greater buyer interest and sales. We need the "long tail" approach to real estate data.

Ryan Elliott
ryanassist@gmail.com

 
Submitted by Joe Cline on March 5, 2008 - 5:59pm.

I don't know that I'd trust NAR to do it given the colossal failure of realtor.com. Not that the website is bad, but the fact that I put content on the site in the form of listings I get and then get ripped off in order to be able to have photos of the listings on there is insulting.

Realtor.com should be non-profit and run by NAR, not some corrupt corporate thieves who are basically parasites living off of realtors' work.

Just my opinion.

Joe
Austin Realtor | Austin Real Estate | Austin Real Estate Blog

 
Submitted by Todd Waller | Ann Arbor Real Estate | Team366 on March 6, 2008 - 7:05am.

To clarify, I think a national MLS or at least the standardizing of the MLS information would be a great thing! As a Realtor, I understand that real estate is local. However, my marketing does not stop at the "border" of my local association.

A standardizing of the data for MLS's would allow an easier flow of data. So, I enter the data once in my MLS and then tell my various service providers to grab that data and begin the marketing effort from that moment.

Todd Waller
Realtor
Team366

 
Submitted by on March 10, 2008 - 2:23pm.

I read a post on the future of real estate marketing blog today(link below)that makes my point about MLS. The big news is Prudential has agreed to give their "feed" to Trulia. These agreements to provide feeds are further confusing the consumers. I spoke with some friends over the weekend about searching for real estate online and everyone one of them said it is a pain. I asked them to explain. They said there are so many sites, Realtor.com, Truila, Zillow, Craigslist, propsmart, and the list goes on. Not to mention the countless FSBO sites. The newspapers, yahoo, google, and MSN are in the game.
The problem is, none of these sites have all the listings and there is no standard for info.
In the end my friends tell me it is almost easier to get in the car and look in neighborhoods you are interested.
It is time for a uniform open database of listings from around the country. MLS or otherwise, it is time.

Ryan Elliott
ryanassist@gmail.com

 
Submitted by on March 10, 2008 - 2:27pm.

Forgot the post the link for the previous post, here it is.
http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/trulia-ropes-in-prudential/

Ryan Elliott
ryanassist@gmail.com

 
Submitted by on April 20, 2008 - 7:42am.

I don't trust NAR to do it right. After the debacle of realtor.com. I am not even listed since I quit doing enhanced listings. That is ridiculous as a paying member. Would they do a national MLS and only list realtors that paid ? Probably, once again take our data and not give credit to the listing agents.
Trulia and Zillow do give credit.

Missy Caulk
Ann Arbor, MI
Missy@MissyCaulk.com

www.AnnArborRealEstateTalk.com
www.SearchAnnArborHouses.com

Advertise with Inman