According to Real Trends;

Half of all brokerage firm leaders oppose permitting the display of listings on certain social media sites while the other half doesn't think it is a problem. Should such a policy be approved, however, almost 9 out of 10 (88%) agree that the name of the brokerage firm supplying listings to any social media sites should be clearly identified for compliance purposes. And nearly 9 out of 10 (85%) favored an “opt-out” provision for display on non-participant sites.

This means that 50% of real estate companies are against listings being shown on certain social media web sites. When the listings are shown 88% of real estate companies believe the supplying company's name should be clearly identified.

It's simple really. In pre-internet era, any real estate company who listed a property for sale had exclusive right to advertise the property anyway he or she chose. The listing agent/broker could put an ad in a newspaper, magazine or other periodical. When the property was advertised, the property must clearly show the listing real estate company. Advertising another agent's listing was strictly prohibited by rules in most cases.

In the digital era, while the mode of transportation of information has changed to such physical items as laptops, tablets and smartphones, the principle of  showing a listing hasn't changed at all. When a property for sale is displayed, the listing company and listing agent want their information displayed.

The Property Call

I just got off the phone with an upset seller who expired her listing in Dec 2010. The listing still showed on Zillow.com.

For about an hour or so, I listened, along with an official company representative, how the company was responsible for all property display and advertising. She further went on to say that the agent is licensed underneath the company and that restitution needs to be paid for damages done since this has been an ongoing issue for nearly a year.

The Property Seller Call

"Well, what do you think?" she asked.

"I think your correct in a lot of ways." I responded.

And I think she has a point. The real estate company does have the responsibility to make sure that the property data is correct.

What's interesting is that most of the internet display is now automatic. Once the property is out of MLS, it removes itself from third party web sites within 24 hours. Monitoring this on a daily basis with thousands of listings across multiple web sites isn't realistic.

The Property Situation

"Don't you have computer systems that know when the contract expired?"

Well, yes. Again, she has a point. So how does the property show on Zillow.com? The property was showing on Zillow.com through a third party advertiser. The agent advertised through a third party luxury web site and the that web site also sent the property to Zillow.com. Since the advertising on the luxury web site was I guess for a year, the advertiser still had the property information and was still sending it to Zillow.com

I guess the agent was supposed to cancel the advertising to make sure it was removed but that apparently didn't happen. Or it did and through a glitch on the luxury web site, the listing still showed and sent to Zillow.com.

In my eyes... hey, it happens. No big deal. We'll pass the info along to the agent and have the agent discontinue the advertising.

In the seller's eyes, she wanted restitution and revenge. She wanted someone to pay!

Broker's Internet Property Display Point

And that's the point. At the end of the day, third party web sites and companies who don't have licenses and who post incorrect information, get to skate away scott free. But the agent and the company has to answer for misinformation in a legal manner.

Doesn't seem fair especially since the third parties are the ones profiting off of information that they don't gather themselves.

It's real world experience issues like this that I was chosen for a nation-wide study of IDX information. Part of what they will be looking into is whether or not property display on social media should be allowed. And if so, at what level and terms.

I'd say after this situation, I have one more example fresh in my mind.

Click the link below to see how search engines, like google, see your web site. This shows how they see hidden content and how they can't see pictures like you and I.

http://www.seo-browser.com

Here's another site that will show additional info like INTERNAL LINKS and EXTERNAL LINKS and give an SEO score:

http://www.domaintools.com/

http://searchengineland.com/organic-click-thru-rates-tumbling-study-97338

Click the above for click through rates in recent history.

Here is the original article from Inman about the NAR repealing franchisor IDX display:

http://www.inman.com/news/2011/11/14/nar-repeals-franchisor-idx-display

There are many comments on the article, most from agents and brokers from around the country who are upset at the decision and are sounding off their displeasure.

A couple of notes are as follows:

01.Like most comments on stories that pertain to real estate IDX information, there's a lot of bad info included. In other words, some of the info listed is flat out inaccurate. This is really concerning especially because most of the comments were brokers and industry insiders that should know better.

02.Most, if not all, weren't involved in the process. In other words, they are so concerned about the topic that they decided to stayed silent the entire time, put no effort into process and then complain when it didn't turn out the way they wanted it. I think every developer/programmer, especially open source, can relate to that. In addition, the griping doesn't offer any solutions or directions. It's simply two-year-old's stomping feet. Grumph.

Jay Thompson, who I disagree with most of the time about web techniques, made a comment that if the complainers are so upset, they should try and influence the outcome by joining a committee. This time I say: Hear! Hear!

03.MLS's are independent, similar to States of the Union. They are suppose to follow the guidelines/rules/processes/procedures set by the National level but have freedom to include their own set of standards. This means that options are not uniform across all MLS's and will change from MLS to MLS. For example, the Regional MLS has only one option for IDX which is listed out as PUBLIC INTERNET and the options are YES or NO. Martin MLS has several options for IDX which can be any combination of the following; IDX, REALTOR.COM, FL PROPERTIES, NONE.

04.I thought "ossified" meant open-source-software-ified... LOL. I had to look that one up. It actually means stagnant or cease developing. Kinda ironic, don't you think?

05.There are many references to ZILLOW and TRULIA but none to REALTOR.COM. Hmmm...

06.There was a point of "what would the clients want"? Good point. I haven't really seen any numbers or a recent survey on this. In my limited experience, most new agents I talk to don't know what ZILLOW or TRULIA are.

07.Another pointed that the decision was based off of fear from HOMES SERVICES OF AMERICA and that the Warren Buffett owned company pressured the outcome.

08.Agent Rene Plante made what I thought was a very insightful comment mentioning that the agent does all the work and takes all the responsibility for a property but gets none of the credit when the property is listed through IDX. I think he has a point. Possibly IDX should be seen as advertising. Currently, it isn't and they are separate items.

09.There was some talk of the franchises joining the ranks of ZILLOW and TRULIA and becoming syndication sites. Apparently this will happen in the first part of 2012. I didn't know that. The claim from Victor Lund is that this is the same as the franchises getting the entire IDX from the MLS's. I disagree. I see a big difference.

I'm curious to see if this would solve anything. I don't know why brokers would want to give their listings to a national franchise site and make the franchise stronger but maybe I'm wrong. I have been before. I suppose this will be the real test for the issue if brokers/agents/sellers really want as much exposure as possible.

I know that in one of my recent dealings a $32 million listing client only wanted the property advertised on certain sites. In that particular case, they were in charge and not the broker or agent. I had to help remove the listing from syndicated web sites. In that case and many others I suppose, the MLS rules weren't "pesky" as Lund claims they are.

10.Steve Barbey's comment is one of the comments that is flat-out incorrect. While it starts out good noting that franchises are not real estate agencies, Barbey in continuation claims that the franchises will gain access to the same IDX info through syndication. The comment is similar to Lund's comment. The difference here is that originally the franchises would take the IDX information directly from the MLS's. With syndication, they must receive the info directly from other brokers. I see a big difference in taking the info without consent from originating agents/brokers/sellers and in receiving the info with their consent.

This is similar to Zillow/Trulia and Realtor.com issue which I discussed awhile back here: http://regionalidx.com/blog/24-blog/61-real-estate-web-site-roundup Except I believe the quality of info will be worse.

In my opinion, this is not the same information. I suppose the horrendous quality of the information that will gather on their sites will be proof enough whether this is true or not.

It's also important to note that licensed agents and brokers are required by law for accurate advertising and property display. While the Zillow's and Trulia's of the world are able to skate away scott free without penalty, if an agent or broker lists property info incorrectly, and people make decisions based on that info, there are serious consequences.

The backend of Regional IDX web sites are finally available. With the back end or the administrator section of the web site real estate agents can control what is on the web site.

They can control the text or the wording of the web site. And they can control the pictures that show on the web site.

Listings are still unavailable to change or edit as this would violate MLS rules.

First American is suing eight different companies for automatic valuation model, AVM, (or is it method?) including Zillow.com

AVM is basically defined as giving people an automatic value of their home. Zillow.com, back by more than $70 million, is the largest player in this arena. Among the real estate community, Zillow.com is notorious for giving completely inaccurate values making the job of real estate agents a tad more difficult.

Listing syndication is all thre rage right now. Trying to get as much exposure as possible, brokers or real estate companies, freely send their properties for sale to third party web sites. The well known sites are sites like Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Yahoo.com, Google.com and Frontdoor.com (Missing any? Let me know by commenting below).

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