[MattL]

As a preface for Jim -- indeed, my comments are meant to be exploratory and not at all adversarial -- per Mert's comment, I do prefer this board over The Other because there aren't any dummy injections in thoughtful threads and I definitely don't harbor an ounce of animosity against Mert. I know who he is (although we, personally, haven't met), respect his goals, and am familiar with his site and the features we're going to "borrow".

Now, Mert, on to your points:

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)).

I don't know about you, but a lot more arbitrary people get my email address than someone with whom I may make a several-hundred-thousand dollar purchase -- and that is the only piece of information required to be captured for validity.

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.

They are definitely applying more limiting criteria than the ADI opt-in flag. By today's measure, I see 12.47% with ADI=NO. They are probably selectively blocked, per the current regs, although that's just a guess. I also show them short about 3,000 listings compared to our data.
Regarding MLSNI's ILD stance:

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.

Again, the issue here is that I agree with MLSNI. Removing the login policy will effectively eliminate buyer agents in this market. Have you seen Google Base or RedFin? It would be more of a pain to find a buyer agent than contact the listing broker when the buyer finds what they want. And, on the tails of my earlier "don't go to the listing agent" comment, I really don't think this future would be pro-consumer.

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.

I understand your point, but the problem is that it's a one-way street that only hurts the small buying agent in a free market -- you really have to consider competition from Google if you open the regs that much, and Google/MSN/Yahoo! are going to do better than you, period.

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).

Again, I feel that only the small man suffers in this scenario. A big, savvy Internet brokerage can out-spend any small agent to complete market domination through cut-rate fees (see RedFin as the Wal*Mart of Real Estate), and national lead pimps will cut out all the buyer agents (see Trulia).

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)

Well, we (as a company) are a good example of making this work -- we offer discount VOWs for the comarketing, or "fair cost" VOWs without it. Alternatively, I know Realtors who offer the opportunity for their Mortgage/Appraisal/Moving/Attorney partners to advertise on a "Partners" page of their site, which amounts to the same as comarketing in Harmon Homes, etc. I (most importantly) was pointing out that MLSNI provides this option while NAR's *cough*anti-competitive*cough* rules do not.

Finally, and this is as much a personal point as anything else, there are good and bad developers, and good and bad plans by either kind of developer. WebPointCentral is a fine example of the well-intentioned-but-ill-planned gone exactly as it should. Their business plan was akin to so many failed dot-coms (which I was a part of) that I could smell blood in the water when we started PMPVOWs (even before they'd fully launched). I predicted failure in three years and they beat me by doing it in two.

The most important factor in managing a successful software project is what I call "reality maintenance" on both sides of the fence (customer & developer). Virtually all developers underestimate complexity or overestimate their skill at some point, and customers always understate their requirements. You're probably either caught with unskilled developers or an unclear goal. Also possible is a burned out development staff that has lost interest in your needs, which happens unfortunately often. I could go on for hours...

-Matt