CRMLS, formerly MRMLS and participant in the Los Angles Data Sharing initiative “CARETS” has announced a partnership with Yardi Systems division, Point2. Under the partnership, Point2 will syndicate CRMLS lsitings on behalf of all 23 member associations and their 26,000 agent members. Point2 has indicated that they syndicate to 60 web portals.
WAV Group favors listing syndication when done properly, and both Yardi(Point2) and Move (Listhub) are looking to clean up many of the issues that have not been addressed since the practice was first deployed by Threewide (Listhub). Syndication solves a real issue by removing the challenges to getting listings out of the mls and onto advertising webistes effectively. The press release was unclear about concerns that we have raised, including efforts to protect the syndicated data from being repurposed; reused; reproductized; relicensed; resyndicated to other sites……. protect the data from being purposed for business use beyond the brokers’ intent of driving prospects to listings. It is also unclear how the CRMLS copyright willl be protected through syndication.
Another issue not addressed in the press release is the policy for ‘opt in’ or ‘opt out.’ Many brokers are already syndicating listings through other means – and repeat synbdication could cause duplicate listings and trump other efforts.
Hopefully Saul Klien or someone else at Point2 will respond to some of these concerns. We hold Saul and his company in high esteem.
Here is the press release:California Regional MLS (CRMLS) Launches Point2 Property Data Syndication Program
San Diego, Calif. February 16, 2011 Point2 (www.Point2.com) today announced that it has completed the first phase of the implementation and roll out of its real estate listing syndication and technology marketing program in partnership with California Regional MLS, Inc. (CRMLS www.crmls.org), as part of an agreement that covers all 23 current CRMLS member associations.
Point2 and CRMLS announced the initiative in December 2010, which will enable current CRMLS member associations and their 26,000 associate REALTORS® to publish their listings across Point2s listing syndication network of nearly 60 popular real estate consumer websites, search engines, classifieds and auction sites, in the United States.
13 CRMLS associate organizations are part of the initial rollout. The implementation is expected to be fully complete during the first quarter of 2011.
“Todays market demands that brokers and agents maximize online visibility for their listings. The automation of this highly time consuming and error prone effort is a primary benefit of this program,” said Art Carter, Chief Executive Officer, California Regional MLS. “We are extremely pleased to see the initiative unfold so smoothly with member endorsement across the board. The Point2 and CRMLS project teams delivered in a world class manner.”
“CRMLS has enabled its associations and their REALTORS® to tap critical technology seamlessly, effortlessly and at no cost to them,” said Saul Klein, Senior Vice President, Point2.” “With free, complete control and choice over listing syndication destinations, free standard online traffic reports and optional lead management tools seamlessly available to them, CRMLS REALTORS® now save money and time, and are positioned to turn more online prospects into customers.”
Point2s partnership agreement with CRMLS covers all future CRMLS member associations.
More advanced traffic reports, as well as the complete subscription based Point2 Agent online marketing and lead management software suite, will be available to CRMLS association members seamlessly through their MLS or Association login dashboards.
For more information about Point2s MLS and Association solution, please visit www.listingsyndication.com.
About Point2
Point2 (www.Point2.com), a Yardi Systems Inc. (www.Yardi.com) brand, provides inventory management and online marketing software solutions to the real estate and heavy equipment industries across 120 countries.
More information about Point2 can be found at www.Point2.com. For ongoing news about Point2, please visit www.point2.com/news.asp.
