In the DOJ/NAR settlement, they clearly spell out that state law prevails.

MLSs cannot prohibit brokers from sending their listings to thrid party websites like zillow, trulia, cyberhomes or any other site – but they can (and do) prohibit a broker from sending another broker’s listing to any third party website.

Moreover, zillow and trulia could become virtual office website providers – doing so would allow them to pull full data feeds of all listings and historical listings on behalf of a broker for any MLS market – but the consumer would need to log in and select a broker before they could view the information.

HAR is governed not by whimsy, but by their board of directors – which are the realtor associations and brokers -

Thanks for the response, Brian. I guess I’ll have to go over and comment at MLSTesseract as well.

I’d love your thoughts on my speculation viz MLS/Realtor Associations being freed of the restrictions of both IDX and VOW under the new legal regime.

Because even if you’re right about customer reticence re: registration, if there is an alternative out there that gives you all of the info with none of the registration, then the customers will flock there. And the MLS/Association websites will happily distribute leads to its members, ultimately resulting in brokerages having to ask why they should invest in IDX or VOW websites when their local MLS/Association gets all the traffic anyhow due to structural advantages.

Thx,

-rsh

-Brian

Second, brokers are getting more savvy about using IDX to draw the consumer in and then getting her to register in return for extra goodies. For example, here in Minneapolis, if you use EdinaRealty.com, you can sign up to be notified of changes in price, open houses, etc., on listings in which you are interested. In order to do so, you have to provide an email address. Edina is wisely responsible—if you sign up there, they do not spam you with a bunch of junk; they send you only the stuff you ask for.

I don’t think brokers will move away from IDX. I think they will just add VOW capabilities. If I were a broker, I’d be happy if only 20% of my IDX site visitors registered for my VOW. Once the visitor is logged in, think of the adaptive technology I could use to show her things she might like. (I’m thinking along the lines of Amazon’s “people who viewed this entry also view” . . .)

-Brian