MLSs must raise bar in real estate search
Perspective: Time to deliver on past promises
By David Charron, Thursday, September 25, 2008.
Remember some of the early plays on the Internet? The big ones in real estate were made by media giants, the print folks who were looking for a way to hedge their bets that classified revenues would tank.
Few of these efforts could be considered resounding successes. Our industry play (Homestore, now Move Inc.) used a combination of cash, warrants and an "all in the family" pitch to keep us engaged.
Alas, those were days filled with fantastic promises. Too few were kept.
Today's crop of online real estate sites leverage broker listings to sell advertising. Brokers have "funded" these sites with their content. This innocent surrender of listings -- coaxed by new promises of free distribution and leads -- has, in my opinion, produced mixed results. More importantly, it has ceded the field of innovation to companies whose interests are not always aligned with that of their broker and agent partners.
And consumers? They are promised more access to real estate information. And they get it. But the problem, when it comes to listings, is comprehensiveness and quality. Buyers and sellers can access tons of listings on tons of sites, but they often find incomplete or out-of-date data amid blinking banners, "featured" listings and other diversions.
Both brokers and consumers would be better served with sites featuring complete, up-to-the-minute multiple listing service data in a context built to serve brokers first, not advertisers -- a site created to put money in brokers' pockets, not extract it.
At MRIS, we thought hard about this, talked extensively to our broker subscribers, and concluded that we, the MLS, were uniquely positioned to make this happen. After all, we exist to serve brokers; we are the keepers of all the MLS listings; and we have little need for advertising revenue.
So we went for it. Carefully. The project to recreate our public listings Web site was under way. The promise to brokers: free traffic, and lots of it, from a Web site engineered for their benefit down to the last pixel.
We started with an investment in consumer research. This wasn't undertaken to support a planned action. We really wanted to understand what consumers considered valuable and useful before a single line of code was written. What we learned guided the product in important ways.
We are set to launch the new site later this month in beta. My hope is that it will not only help our subscribers in a challenging market, but inspire other MLS organizations to flex their muscles and reclaim the mantle of innovation.
To really justify itself, a public MLS site needs to be as good as (or better than) any other real estate site in the market. Not many MLSs have pulled that off. Yet. The public portal has to be a well-executed entry point that is as much about pulling the force of innovation back to the practitioner as it is about creating an edgy, memorable, efficient, satisfying experience for the visitor.
No question, there is a place for many consumer alternatives in this market. But you have to admit, the idea of a site without any of those pesky ads and fewer offramps leading visitors farther away from the people who provide the listings is pretty appealing. And, for consumers, getting all the MLS listings, direct from the source, is a big win.
It is my hope, almost 14 years into the era of online real estate, that we as an industry can start delivering on the promises of the past. MLS organizations have a big role to play in making that happen.
David Charron is the CEO of MRIS, the nation's largest MLS. Learn more at http://mris.com.
***
What's your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor.
All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
You must login or register to post a comment.
Submitted by Ken Lampton on September 25, 2008 - 2:52pm.
Local/regional Associations and their affiliated MLS organizations have become too full of themselves. It should not be the role of the MLS organization to set up public-facing IDX sites. I resent it very much when they use my dues money to do so.
Leave the home selling up to me and my broker please.
If my MLS organization really wants to help me, they should negotiate for discounted rates from top-notch IDX providers, so I can have a really first-rate IDX search on my own website without having to pay such high fees to the providers.
Submitted by Drew & Christine Morgan on September 25, 2008 - 3:29pm.
We would appreciate it if our local MLS would have a better web site than all the mash-ups that are re-distributing the data full of errors and with old information. The thought of driving more buyers to our MLS site doesn’t bother me in the least. Buyers want the information and they are going to get it—somewhere.
Christine
Submitted by Al Clark on September 26, 2008 - 4:48am.
Hi David, Congrats on the launch. I too have seen the research on what consumers want ( A lot from WAV Group) and you are right, get the accurate and relevant data, collect the eyeballs and transfer engaged consumers to the brokers site.
Some in the industry think Consumer-facing MLS's have other motives but so far from what I have seen with your project you are protecting your mission-- protecting the brokers.
Albert Clark, Principal Partner
realPING Click To Talk NOW
http://realPING.com
Submitted by Marc Davison on September 26, 2008 - 6:52am.
"Leave the home selling up to me and my broker please"... Kenneth Lampton.
I disagree with your call to arms Kenneth. Based on what's written the only thing this MLS is looking to do is bring their members more selling opportunities and offering the public a better real estate experience that any outside portal or for that matter, any one broker or agent can.
If I were a member, I for one would rejoice over this development.
Not sure I understand how an agent could look at their local MLS and say "stay out of our business" when the very fact is, they are part of your business.
But more importantly, the fact is, the sleeping MLS giants HAVE stayed out of your business for the past 14 years and that, has, in many ways, led to the issues agents/brokers now all face - the creation, development and popularity of the online search sites that you now all syndicate too, buy ads on, and drive yourselves crazy about each time a new one launches.
I applaud any MLS that wakes up, spends a year researching the consumer and then devotes itself to building the best net to catch them and freely pass them down to their membership.
Score a few points for traditional real estate.
Well done.
Marc
Submitted by Brian Wilson on October 2, 2008 - 6:41am.
I agree with Kenneth. A good example of an MLS that has taken the leap from an association to a competing entity is Houston Association of Realtors. One example: they expouse openness and consumer-focus when defending their public portal but are one of the most difficult MLS's to work with for agents who are trying to use a competing IDX system.
Things are swinging far off-center in the direction of public-facing MLS's right now but ther will be a very strong backlash in the near future. Just as agents are learning that they will not increase their business by sending their listings to 40 or 50 "portals," they will learn, as the brokers in HAR have, that the only entity benefiting from this are the portals, like HAR.
This sounded very negative against HAR, which was not my intentiion. I think they are the perfect example of an association with good intentions but have forgotten who keeps their lghts on.
Submitted by Brian Wilson on October 2, 2008 - 6:50am.
If MLS's want to raise the bar, then this is what they should do:
1. Provide a complete IDX data set that is RETS compliant. Make it free to their members who are people who are spending the time and money creating the data set.
2. Be friendly and quick when an agent or their IDX vendor calls to setup a new customer.
3. Teach classes on IDX, blogging, websites and internet lead management. Make it their business to teach their agents how to best deliver this information to the customer.
4. Do not do anything that would pull customers from their member real estate sites.
5. Per Kenneth, negotiate IDX discounted rates.
Bottom line is that MLS's can give an agent a fish or teach them to fish. Once agents surrender the lead generation portion of their business, it no longer is a business.