CoreLogic v. LPS and RPR Lawsuit

Lawsuit On the heals of settling the Civix lawsuit, MLSs are aware that litigation can have significant impacts on the services they offer to their members using third party service providers. The Civix settlement was arranged by NAR legal council and cost MLSs about $9.06 per subscriber. There are other ongoing patent infringement lawsuits for mobile that could also have significant impacts on MLS service providers, but a recent Inman article brought my attention to a suit that CoreLogic has pending against LPS, and by association, RPR™. CoreLogic® has patents on their Automated Valuations tools and claim that [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:40-07:00June 8th, 2011|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on CoreLogic v. LPS and RPR Lawsuit

NAR Announces 2011 30 under 30 Award Winners

As a former winner of a “40 under 40″ award in Buffalo, New York I know what an honor it is to receive a “30 under 30″ award.  It’s a great way for the industry to recognize those that go above and beyond - the up and comers - the future of our business. Today, the National Association of REALTORS® announced its 2011 list of  “30 Under 30″ honorees. This group exemplifies the personal drive many Realtors® have to be the best and provide a high level of service to their clients, despite tough market conditions and a constantly evolving [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:40-07:00May 31st, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Clients, Main category, Marketing, Our Company|Comments Off on NAR Announces 2011 30 under 30 Award Winners

MLS Listings submits repeal request to NAR on IDX policies

MLS Listings of the San Francisco Bay area is apparantly the first MLS in the country to join The Realty Alliance, Leading RE, the Council of MLSs, Home Services and others who have sent letters to NAR requesting a denial of recent wrokgroup suggestions for IDX policies. MLSListings, Inc. operates a regional multiple listing service for 8 REALTOR® associations in the Silicon Valley and coastal regions of Northern California, encompassing a service area of over 28,000 square miles and representing more than $70 billion dollars in annual real estate transactions. We are owned by these associations, and governed by the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:41-07:00May 4th, 2011|Main category, MLS Insights|2 Comments

CMLS intensifies pressure on NAR to repeal recent IDX rules

Dear Pat and MLS Issues and Policy Members,   Please accept this letter on behalf of the Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) regarding the recommendations included in the “Report and Recommendations of the IDX Data Use Work Group". The difficult task of reviewing the inclusion of social media in IDX isnt an enviable one; please know that we respect the commitment that each work group member gave to the effort.   The membership of CMLS is very diverse and includes Associations and MLS organizations from small to very large REALTOR® owned to regional to broker owned to private. Regardless [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:41-07:00May 4th, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on CMLS intensifies pressure on NAR to repeal recent IDX rules

Why IDX at all? A response to 7DS Associates

I cannot speak for The Realty Alliance, Leading RE or any other brokerage. But I can summarize the sentiments of WAV Groups’ broker clients.  This will hopefully shed some light on the question of IDX usefulness, and the issues that are concerning brokers across America representing 200,000 REALTORS. Brokers are upset with recent changes to NAR’s model IDX rules and regulations. Brokers claim that the two recent modifications to IDX, and a third policy revision under consideration; NAR’s MLS Policy Committee failed to contemplate (or appreciate) who owns the data and who is legally responsible for it. The first policy change extended IDX [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:42-07:00April 30th, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off on Why IDX at all? A response to 7DS Associates

Brokers and MLSs formulate concerns over new IDX recommendations

There is a work group that recommends changes to NAR’s MLS Policy Committee on changes to the policy. This work group recently submitted suggested changes that, if adopted, would enable RSS and other electronic means of syndicating listings to third parties. Brokers and MLSs alike are very concerned about the potential infringements on the copyrights of brokers and MLSs, and the potential for law suits from home sellers. Broker participants are legally liable for the listing content as outlined in the listing contract with the seller. The broker takes on the legal responsibility for the listing through the contact. Moreover, the convents [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:43-07:00April 18th, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Brokers and MLSs formulate concerns over new IDX recommendations

The Realty Alliance and Nation’s largest brokers want IDX Reform

In a press release today, The Realty Alliance joined the ranks of Leading RE and other brokers who are making an effort to overturn the recent actions by the NAR MLS Policy Committee to extend IDX privileges to franchise organizations. Chief rationale is that only the procuring broker may authorize and share their listing data with anyone who is not a member of the MLS. Press Release: Joe Horning, Chairman of the Board, The Realty Alliance LARGE BROKERS ASK FOR REPEAL OF FRANCHISE EXEMPTION FOR IDX The Board of Directors of The Realty Alliance sent a letter yesterday to the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:44-07:00April 18th, 2011|Main category|Comments Off on The Realty Alliance and Nation’s largest brokers want IDX Reform

IDX Data Use Workgroup Submits Recommendations

I just received a copy of the Report of Recommendations of the IDX Use Work Group of the Multiple Listing Issuse and Policies Committee. I have had a blur of calls from The Realty Alliance, Leading RE, MLSs and Franchises alike today. There are many significant concerns. At the heart of the recommendations is the new rule that IDX listing content may be distributed by RSS or other electronic means (anyway you want) to any third party without any restrictions what so ever. Brokers and Agents still have restraints on the use and display of the data on their own [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:44-07:00April 15th, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on IDX Data Use Workgroup Submits Recommendations

LPS going to bat for Franchise Organizations

In an op ed column released today, LPS suggests that NAR’s MLS Policy Committee made a poor choice in forbidding Franchises (like Century 21, Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX, Keller Williams, et al) from allowing them to display advertising around IDX listings. Here is the article   Why the NAR’s IDX Policy Kills Competition By Shiraz Vartanian With the publication of the NAR Handbook on Multiple Listing Policy in January of this year, the National Association of REALTORS policy has changed to now allow national franchisors to index IDX listings on their Websites. While this is a positive development - and one that [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:44-07:00April 13th, 2011|Main category|Comments Off on LPS going to bat for Franchise Organizations

NAR getting negative feedback on #RPPSI

RPPSI, or REALTOR Party Political Survival Initiative got off on the wrong foot, so far. What NAR is trying to do as an advocate for REALTORS and property owners is admirable, but the execution of the strategy will need to improve if the initiative is to find success. They are getting almost 100% negative feedbackfrom the members on thier website. It breaks my heart to see NAR fail when good guidance in Washington is desperately needed. I learned about #RPPI on Twitter. A nice blog post that summarized the initiatives was found on the Arizona REALTORS blog here. From there I registered [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:45-07:00April 10th, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off on NAR getting negative feedback on #RPPSI

The Real Goal of RPR and CoreLogic

I just returned from speaking at the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World conference in Las Vegas. Leading RE is an amazing group of independent brokerages from across the nation and the world. The Leading RE network represents the largest non-franchise organizations from every marketcenter - I think they have about 600 broker members. Admittedly, my talk to the brokers likely represented the most boring session at the conference - Data Licensing, Listing Syndication, and an explaination of new IDX policies from the NAR MLS Policy committee. Notwithstanding, a few hundred broker owners joined the meeting indicating that they [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:47-07:00March 11th, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on The Real Goal of RPR and CoreLogic

GSEs NAR Profit and Welfare

What happens next in the financial markets of the mortgage industry is up in the air. Our current system is a failure when markets go down. It cripples our industry, the financial markets, and millions of consumers. The National Association of REALTORS released their reform recommendations. As one of the chief lobbying groups in Washington DC, you can bet that government is listening. They highlight the issues. Government Sponsored Entities are problematic. Anytime you have an artificial business that shares profits when times are good, and gets bailed out by taxpayers when times are bad - risk of collapse is high. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:51-07:00February 17th, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on GSEs NAR Profit and Welfare