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 Multiple Listing Policy and Issues Committee asking that the National Association of Realtors at its earliest opportunity repeal the recent change in policy that allows real estate franchise organizations to receive and display IDX information.
The Realty Alliance comprises more than 60 of the largest, full-service residential real estate companies in the United States, comprising close to 100,000 licensed salespeople, all of whom are members of the National Association of Realtors and are participants in literally hundreds of MLSs. The organization’s shared membership has an important stake in the policies related to MLS policy and Internet Data Exchange (IDX). Close to one-third of our member firms are franchises, another portion is otherwise affiliated and the rest enjoy varying levels of independence.
In the letter The Realty Alliance Board expressed concerns about conflicts with various real estate laws and regulations, about the lack of recourse and liability for non-participant use/display of listing data, about the varying standards of responsibility between participants and non-participants, about the financial and administrative burdens placed on participants and MLSs (but not non-participants), about liability regarding the protection of information, about breach of contracts between participants and MLSs limiting where data can be sent, about the discriminatory nature of singling out franchisors for the exemption, about the potential for the policy to empower the creation of “straw brokers” who can exploit the policy and about copyright infringement.
The Board summarized by attesting that the value of increasing the availability of listing data does not outweigh the many legal issues raised by the policy change.
The organization expects its members to make independent decisions about the policy and anticipates that the NAR committee will receive significant and varying input from various companies and networks with which its members are affiliated in addition to The Realty Alliance Board’s request.
