MLS is as American as apple pie. It was designed for mutual sharing of information by industry peers to facilitate the research and sale of properties by brokers and agents for their customers. Today most real estate agents can’t operate without it, many Realtor Boards financially benefit from it, recently brokers have fought over it and now it appears more and more consumers have discovered the power of it. It could be the biggest boon to the industry or the Trojan horse that levels the playing field and allows outsiders easy entrance. Multi Listing Services (MLS) are so important that the new 110-page Swanepoel TRENDS Report devotes numerous pages to this Top 15 ranking trend.
MLS organizations have gotten their first taste of how fast technology can change the way business is done and managed. During the last 10-15 years MLS has evolved from cards to three-ring binders and from printed books to the ability to print locally. Today the information, once input into the MLS system, has become wide-spread in its distribution via the Internet. MLS operations previously functioned within relatively small, well-defined territories but now with real estate companies expanding across state lines and going national, they too find themselves forced to consolidate and standardize. Many believe this is not happening fast enough and with huge growth and high adoption of the Internet the MLS is now being pushed into a much needed state of reinvention.
The recent debate over the ownership, control, aggregation and promotion of listings is also still fresh in everyone’s mind. Some brokers don’t want their listings to appear on other brokers’ websites, third-party websites or MLS sites that are open to consumers. They feel that they have the right to restrict their publication. Yet others believe that it is in the best interest of the consumer for that information to be shared. They believe that, if explained correctly to the seller, the process will provide the necessary consent, if and where requested.
NAR contributed significantly when they stepped in and recognized two important needs: 1) the need for Realtors® to protect the right of the broker to control his listings and 2) the need for Realtors® to control the publication of sensitive aspects of MLS data (such as names of sellers, mortgage information, tax information, etc.). They developed two policies relating to the display of listing information on the Internet - the first, dubbed the IDX (Information Data Exchange) policy, dealt with the display of basic, non-sensitive listing data - the second, called the VOW (Virtual Office Website) policy, dealt with the display of complete MLS data in a virtual office environment. Later NAR followed with a new policy entitled “Internet Listing Display” (ILD) that consolidates IDX and VOW policies into a single, unified policy governing the Internet display of all property information originating from the more than 800 multiple listing services owned and operated by Realtor® Organizations. All Realtor® MLSs are required to comply with the new policy by July 1, 2006.
Next month, for the first time, a NAR advisory group will be meeting to discuss a new vision for the nation's MLS system. Their mission is to consider how an MLS system would look if it were established from scratch today. Any tool universally used by real estate agents begs for standardization and integration; unfortunately that goal has lingered unfulfilled for a long time. With each of the several hundred MLSs in operation nationwide offering a different degree of technological sophistication, the lack of standardized data and uniform presentation is growing. However, the issue is complicated by the fact that NAR is the defendant in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice that specifically calls into question the trade group's MLS restrictive policies for online sharing and display of property information.
Meanwhile, while many agents don’t really seem to care about the current debate, a growing number of players such as HouseValues.com, Realestate.com, Google, eBay, Craigslist, Zillow, etc. are exploring alternatives to meet a growing consumer need for an expanded flow of real estate information. Whether agents like it or not, MLS, the rules governing it and the sharing of the data residing in it, is still a very hot potato.
To get up to speed on what is happening to the real estate industry and important trends such as the evolution of MLS, read the 110-page Swanepoel TRENDS Report – it is by far the most comprehensive research ever done on the residential real estate industry and not only provides a excellent state of the industry today, but many though provoking pieces of information of aspects already influencing the industry. The Report is exclusively distributed by the RealtyU Bookstore at www.realestatebooks.org. |
