Most Real Estate Board of Realtors seem to look at the MLS as something of a public service.
How do I know?
Well, I had a conversation today with a very nice gentleman that works for a local MLS Board. Seriously, he was as nice as he is sincere. And he told me they were making the IDX data freely available as a public service.
Are you kidding me? Last I checked Realtors have a website in order to make money. My clients do not pay me a handsome sum of money such that they can provide charity, err I mean a public service.
This man works for a board of Realty that has blocked their members from using reputable MLS IDX Feed Services. The reason they did this, is in my opinion, a move to make themselves profitable. Seemingly a conflict of interest when they are supposed to be representing the Realtor that pays their dues.
But of course, why should the board worry about this when NAR, created Realtor.com to provide MLS data. Where listings are shared freely with the public and the brokers that NAR represents has to pay up to $100,000 to get leads from this site.
Now, lets be clear. Realtor.com exists only because NAR had to compete against MSN and others that were going after the stronghold that the Realtor community has held for all the years prior to the internet. NAR had originally got member brokerages and agents to subisdize this montrosity. They then started finding ways to monetize the free disemenation of their member data.
Then, after using the Realtor data, they have the gall to charge their member brokerages and agents such that they can get the benefits of the data. The Realtors already were supposed to be getting the benefits as each Realtor pays dues to be part of NAR.
Mimmicking a government bureacracy like perhaps the DMV, Realtor.com's base of supporters continue to put up with lousy service and poor results.
The Bastardization of the Realtors MLS
This in affect causes a Napsterdiztion of the Realtor's information. You will recall that Napster allowed the free sharing of MP3 files across the internet. This got the record industry into an uproar because they felt that sharing their records would in affect cheapen their product.
This is what is ocurring in the free sharing of the MLS.
The biggest problem as I see it it that the Realtor does a very poor job of creating tangible value for their service. Most of the perceived value of an agent is in his or her ability to negotiate a contract and hold a deal together.
However, the public has never really believed this.
While NAR, goes on with naive slogan campaigns, the Realtor that NAR represents, suffers. If John Q Public really does not get the true value of an agent, then the only tangible tool the agent has to offer is the perceived value of the MLS.
And if the MLs is for FREE. Then what is the perceived valuable of an agent to the real estate transaction? This is more than likely why websites like Real Estate For Sale By Owner has popped up over the past few years, offering cut rate, no frills listings.
Asking the public to register before viewing the Realtor data called the MLS is not only good marketing, it is neccessary for the very survival of the current model of marketing real estate.
