The nice thing about making the rules is … you get to break them!

October 20, 2006

I rarely have a need to go to Realtor.com, but when I did so last night I had quite the surprise — there were not just active listings, but recently solds as well!  Their source for that data?  Not the MLS, but a 3rd party data aggregator called OnBoard.  I’m getting a headache.

2006-10-20_14-00-59-703.png

It’s taken as a given in this industry that by withholding information from consumers, you encourage them to call a Realtor, which has been the rationale behind the archaic prohibitions on showing data on sold properties.  Alas, this thing called the Internet came around and set a whole bunch of data free, much of which is gleefully basking in the sun at Zillow.com.  So now consumers who want sold data can simply ignore Realtors completely.  Bad move on our part.

As a competitive response, Realtor.com, the “official site of the National Association of Realtors,” now displays sold data…in violation of the recommended rules of…you guessed it, the National Association of Realtors.

From the NAR site:

2006-10-20_13-43-20-562.png

Our local MLS, which provides the data feed for this area to hundreds of web sites, including Realtor.com, is pretty explicit on this issue:  [I assume the first line is supposed to say, "No one may publish the following kinds of information..."]
ild.jpg
So let me see if I have this straight…REIL, our local MLS, operating under guidelines from NAR, explicitly prohibits the display of sold listings.  REIL licenses its data for this area to Realtor.com, NAR’s official site, which then breaks REIL’s own rules by displaying sold data?

Perhaps they’re able to get around the prohibition simply by using sold data from a 3rd party aggregator, instead of from the MLS.  Ingenious, and disingenuous, at the same time.

Real time update…I just called REIL’s compliance department and spoke to a very friendly and helpful person.  She promised to look into it and get back to me.  I explained to her that while I think it’s a silly rule, if other people have found a way around it, I’d like to be able to do the same.

Tags: , , , , ,

Written by Kevin · Filed Under National Association of Realtors, Real estate, Real estate data, Realtor.com, Technology, Zillow 

Comments

3 Responses to “The nice thing about making the rules is … you get to break them!”

  1. The nice thing about making the rules is … you get to interpret them the way you want! at Three Oceans Real Estate — Insights from a Wired Bay Area Realtor on October 22nd, 2006 5:05 pm

    [...] Late Friday afternoon, I heard back from our local MLS about realtor.com’s displaying of sold data on their web site.  Their interpretation is that Realtor.com is not breaking any rules after all because…their sold data comes from a 3rd party aggregator, not the MLS. [...]

  2. Today’s sign that the apocalypse is nigh… at Three Oceans Real Estate on November 8th, 2006 5:49 pm

    [...] I doubt I caused this, but I’m shocked nonetheless. [...]

  3. An embarrassment of riches at Three Oceans Real Estate on December 14th, 2006 11:43 pm

    [...] How can Trulia display sold listings when that’s against the longstanding rules of most MLS’s in the country? (Note: our local MLS, and, I believe, the NWMLS, recently changed that policy.) Simple: Trulia is not a member of any MLS, so it’s not bound by the same silly rules. It gets its listing information from its Realtor partners, and its sold homes data from county records, via a third party. [...]

Got something to say?





« Back to text comment