The other day, Drew Meyers pointed me to a post in the Zillow forums where someone was asking some very interesting (and seemingly common) questions about IDX. The individual wanted to know what IDX essentially is and whether or not someone could create a program that could easily search across all real estate listings on a national level. While many real estate professionals, and especially those reading this blog, may know what IDX is, I’ve spoken with enough people to know that this knowledge is by no means common to everyone. Therefore, I’m going to answer (from my own perspective) a few of the most common questions I’ve heard surrounding IDX.

What exactly is IDX and what does it mean?
At the most basic level, IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, is a branded property search website. Although some MLS’s only allow brokers to get an IDX website, most of them allow both brokers and agents to get an IDX website. Additionally, some MLS’s will actually give out free links to a (usually) stripped down version of an IDX website that the MLS either built themselves or contracted out to a vendor to build. Once the agent or broker has an IDX website, they usually either frame it in or link to it from their own website so that their website visitors can interact with it and search for properties by themselves.

Can I use an IDX website to look up or search for active listings on a national level?
Not right now. While it is possible to build an IDX website aggregates listing data on a national level to allow someone to search for properties across the nation, the only way I’m aware of doing it would be to create a company that would have some mondo bucks behind it. First, they’d have to be legally licensed as a broker in all 50 states. Next, they’d have to pay membership dues to approximately 1800+ MLS’s and a plethora of other associations through the country. They would also have to make sure that they, and their IDX vendor, maintained compliance with all of the different rules and regulations for each one of those MLS’s. Finally, they’d have to have an army of agents to be able to respond all of the requests for real estate services by people all across the county. Depending on who you ask, those restrictions that prevent an IDX website from functioning on a national level are either a good thing or a bad thing.

Are all IDX feeds the same?
Not at all. The raw data that comprises the IDX feeds to power the IDX websites are provided to vendors in almost any and every way you can imagine, from FTP downloads to, literally, UPS shipments of hard drives. Additionally, each MLS or association puts their own spin on the data, making it really difficult to maintain a good IDX system that can accommodate any MLS across the country. Each MLS also requires vendors to change the way their IDX solution displays the data to follow their own rules. Basically, there’s just not a single point of contact for anyone or a single API that allows those who need the data to query or download it at will.

I’ve heard a lot about RETS lately. Is RETS different from IDX?
RETS is just one of the numerous ways that IDX vendors and other direct consumers of raw real estate can get information from the organizations who collect that information. The whole idea of RETS is that operational costs will be lower to the data providers and tech vendors will be able to quickly hook their systems up to those providers without having to spend lots of time to accommodate each new system. The goal is definitely a noble one, but from my own perspective of actually working with the different RETS systems, it really hasn’t saved me that much time due to the numerous differences among each provider’s data.

Can I get listings from the IDX for my RSS reader?
The ability to get new / updated listings and property updates via RSS, or Really Simple Syndication (YouTube vid), is a feature that the individual IDX vendors would have to implement. I know that our IDX has full support for RSS feeds, and I have definitely seen other companies that do this (although, unfortunately, I can’t recall them right now). I’d bet that quite a few vendors who don’t currently support RSS are actually working on this feature right now.

My MLS or association only gives out a VOW feed. Is IDX different from VOW?
I recently discussed IDX vs VOW, or Virtual Office Website, at length with my coworkers, and from our perspective, we’re convinced that the definition between IDX and VOW is, at best, fuzzy. A VOW data feed is supposed to be a raw data feed that can be only be displayed on a VOW website, and, by definition, VOW websites require visitors to register as a user in the system to search for and view listings. In reality though, many data providers actually give vendors what they call an IDX feed that is really a VOW feed; vendors are then supposed to strip out the VOW-only fields to turn that data feed into something that can be displayed on an IDX website. It’s a really confusion world when it comes to IDX vs VOW, so if you want to know more, I suggest you check out MetalSoftware’s writeup on IDX vs VOW.

What do I need to do to get an IDX feed?
First, you should probably contact your association or MLS. Again, if you’re an agent, you might not be able to get an IDX website. Once you contact your organization, ask them what paperwork you need to fill out to be able to have your own IDX website. You might also want to ask them if they provide a free, pre-branded IDX link you can use, although those links usually pretty crippled with less features and without the visitor login / registration system you’d find elsewhere. After you have a basic idea what hoops you’ll have to jump through to get an IDX website, you’ll want to pick a good IDX vendor to go with. I’ve listed a few of the ones I know of below.

Anyway, I hope this post addresses some of the more basic questions that people have about IDX. I love to talk with people about the gooey technical details of what I do, so if you want to know more about anything on any level, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer anything you can throw at me.