Jim,
First of all I hope you feel better. I am happy to see you live and kicking again in the forum. Matt is a programmer and work for a mortgage company that owns a very popular VOW (PMPVOW-Matt sold the software to the mortgage company). The company provides the VOW to realtor sites as an almost free service to improve the mortgage company's realtor and brokerage relationships in Chicagoland. I respect their program but not use it as a professional choice (which should not reflect on the quality of their product which truly is a good program) so please donot take this thread as self promotion but rather an intellectual debate as I also take Matt as a friend. I can see the reasons of his questions being here instead of the other forum to be more private without third party interference as he knows I read both forums.
Matt,
You asked the questions so I will answer and ask questions myself.
How can the requirement of sharing private information, access and requirement of storing that private information in realtor's servers (which probably are not the safest places against hackers be a pro-consumer policy (it is barely a pro-realtor policy if you call it that)).
(The IDX feed for MLSNI contains 87.5% of the full MLS (by today's numbers.-->Matt's quote)). I just checked the Koenig & Strey website. Their pre registration number is 49,513 out of 83,938. Please tell me if I am missing something.
Thank you for giving me the numbers for big brokerage absentees and the points that you reminded me that I missed about the anti-competitiveness, software issues (and my god are there issues), NAR's ILD issues. I fulheartedly agree with you, I will actually update the blog right away to reflect those points as soon as I am done writing the response.
(MLSNI has pledged to uphold this policy even if NAR adopts a modified ILD policy, so get used to it-->Matt's quote) I certainly believe in public opinion changing things. Funny, I am the Turk here (who grew up in a less democratic society). I should be the one saying that not an American.
About your points, this is my opinion that it should be the right of a realtor to choose when and how to create lead generation and how much info to give to the client or how to present that information to best serve the client as a real estate professional without additional limitations.
(The forced login policies block the consumers as much as the exploiting realtors(Matt's quote)). The whole sale exploitation of my webpages can be prevented by one call to the managing broker of the agent with the threat of a letter to Realtor and IDFPR ethics board plus a letter from my lawyer threatening to sue for damages though I agree with you about it being pain. But just like spam mail you take the good with the bad.
(For consumers, it allows far more functionality and, potentially, improves the solution's intelligence through personalization-> Continuation of the above quote by Matt) Don't you think a free IDX would allow the programming of more specific search related pages to already exist when a potential customer is looking for that specific info through other possible search tools (even a keyword search tool for that matter) on the website. There are many many multiple ways to reaching high efficiency functionality (which actually to give you a point kills the conversion rates of a realtor either way (my way or your way that is, if enough information is given through the realtor sites by killing the need for a buyer agency).
"MLSNI's policy allows cooperative advertising, which is an easy way for an internet startup to defray costs. This is specific to MLSNI, as NAR's default VOW policy does not permit advertising on listing pages". While I see your point on defraying costs, I can not see myself and many realtors out there to advertise a mortgage company in their search result(or any other company) and still be deemed trustable and neutral in the eyes of the buyers when giving professional advice (ironically currently many of my realtors do use one of your loan officers but I donot have a policy on enforcing the advertisement of one single mortgage company)
Let me know what you think...
Quote:
Originally Posted by MattL
This is in response to Mert's recent blog post at that other useless forum:
http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/...mert/341/show/
First, let me say that compared to MANY MLSes in America, MLSNI has some of the most progressive (and pro-consumer) policies around.
To contend some of Mert's points: The IDX feed for MLSNI contains 87.5% of the full MLS (by today's numbers). Of those properties excluded from the IDX feed, 20% of them belong to Coldwell-Banker Residential and Baird & Warner -- the original defectors to MAPMLS because of MLSNI's VOW policy. Another 20% belong to RE/MAX offices that are pushing IllinoisProperty.com. And, personally, I would say that at least half of the remaining listings are blocked unintentionally, because the listing agent doesn't understand the implications. The "forced login" policy is very, very good for Realtors and beneficial to consumers. Most significantly, it prevent the wholesale exploitation of your site by other Realtors (which DOES happen). For consumers, it allows far more functionality and, potentially, improves the solution's intelligence through personalization. You wouldn't sit with an on-site client for an hour searching properties without getting any contact information, so your "virtual office" shouldn't be any different. MLSNI has pledged to uphold this policy even if NAR adopts a modified ILD policy, so get used to it. MLSNI's policy allows cooperative advertising, which is an easy way for an internet startup to defray costs. This is specific to MLSNI, as NAR's default VOW policy does not permit advertising on listing pages.
What Mert SHOULD be complaining about: The handful of megalithic brokerages that "blanket opt-out" their own listings from the IDX feed while merrily displaying competitors' listings on their site. This is one provision of the ILD policy with which I whole-heartedly agree -- if you opt-out, you may NOT display other Realtors' listings on your own website. Then it's more of a cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face policy, and there would be some disincentive to opting-out. The lack of industry standardization in IDX, VOW, and RETS data feeds. Having been a software developer for 10+ years, I can't believe how poorly implemented the "standards" are in this market, or how disparate are the three sources. Having true standards would allow far more code reuse, and afford a lot more cooperation (even conversation) between developers from different firms. As it stands, each company that creates a solution (myself included) actually benefits from withholding the "secrets" of making it work, usability improvements, and so on. NAR's national anti-competitive practices that relate to the Internet (i.e., most of the DoJ's anti-trust allegations). In my eyes, they are all fairly valid in some way.
-Matt |