Silly MLS IDX Rules
I read some stuff the other day about how the talented crew over at Estately recently launched into the Portland, OR market, and one of the stupid MLS rules (my opinion) they had to face triggered some memories of frustrations I had faced when I loaded the Portland data into our own IDX system. I’ll quote directly from the RMLS (Oregon MLS) rules themselves.
(Rule III.13) Address fields are included in the IDX data set for the sole purpose of facilitating mapping functionality. The addresses of property must not be viewable (and may not be printable) on or from any IDX website.
How unfortunate, and really, what’s the point? Is the point to protect the house from the squatters who use their laptop with it’s high-speed Internet connection to search for their next place to squat? Maybe the rule is in place to prevent the next door neighbors from performing an address search on Estately to find out that your house is in foreclosure. Actually, I bet they have the rule in place just because RMLS thinks it would be funny to frustrate buyers who just want to live on a particular street.
Okay, okay, I know. The rule is in place so that buyers can’t just search for properties on a website and then go for a drive to take a look at the properties themselves. Basically, easily displayable information is intentionally withheld from potential buyers in order to facilitate a business model that prizes information asymmetry and requires potential buyers like myself to essentially waste someone’s time to find out the information required to see a property with my own eyes. I know that there’s probably a lot of agents out there who want to egg my car for saying that while other agents would defend me, but hey, it’s just the way a lot of people in my generation (Generation Y) feel.
The best (worst?) part about the rule is that it only applies to “any IDX website”. Does that mean it’s okay to show the address in our RSS feeds? How about our property update emails? What about the printable brochures that don’t have to be part of the IDX website? If we’re allowed to show addresses in any of those venues as an IDX vendor (as the rule reads), then what’s the point of making the site harder to use if the information is available if the user just looks hard enough? We’ve loaded in IDX data from over 40-something of the largest markets in the US now, and RMLS is the only MLS that we’ve encountered who’s had that rule
Anyway, enough of picking on RMLS. Let’s take a jab at some other rules that we’ve encountered in our travels.
- NorthStar MLS (coincidentally enough, they also refer to themselves as RMLS):
“Once during each viewing session of the BRS’s web site, the BRS’s web site must require the visiting consumer to assent to the terms of the “End-User License Agreement for consumers accessing public MLS and broker web sites, including Broker Reciprocity sites” (the “EULA”), promulgated by the Service. The BRS’s web site must obtain the consumer’s assent by means of the consumer’s affirmative act before the consumer views any portion of the Broker Reciprocity Database.”
Are they serious? Yes, deadly serious. Here’s their EULA (Word doc) that all visitors are expected to read in its entirety and consent to before searching. No other MLS requires this.
- A handful of MLSs require us to put their logo on every single property. Most MLSs require us to display some sort of broker reciprocity logo on listings that aren’t owned by the agent or broker who is using the IDX, and I understand that, but what’s the point of putting the MLS’s logo on every single listing? We’re trying to encourage people to remember and contact the agent or broker, not remember what the MLS’s logo looks like.
- Realcomp (Detroit) requires us to display the school district on every single listing and in all of the search results. I understand that it’s nice to know, but it’s very odd to me that they consider it to be so important for people to know as to be codified into their IDX rules. No other MLS requires this.
- Three MLSs mandate that we don’t show the number of days that the property has been on the market. Redfin and others have worked around this by calling the number “Days on Redfin” instead of “Days on Market”. Again though, if there are workarounds, what’s the point?
- MetroList in northern California required us to remove all logos from our IDX solution. It’s not a big deal at all — it’s just weird is all. None of the other MLSs mentioned it.
There are bunch of other aggravating rules we’ve encountered, but you probably get the point by now. I really love what I do, and it’s actually quite enjoyable to search each new MLS that we load into our system, but sometime’s it feels like we hit the negative lottery (to quote from The Death of Common Sense) each and every time we load in a new IDX feed. Speaking of The Death of Common Sense, I think there’s a couple of MLS execs, lawyers, and compliance-checking employees out there who probably need to read that book as well.
MLS Hater
Posted at 20:12h, 31 MayWhat a joke. MLS’s are out of control. They do what they can to be the monopolistic governing power because they have the information. They have the power.
MLS’s had better step it up and make sure they are really serving Realtors and adding values or else someone will find a way to overthrow their reign of Power…..
The 93rd Carnival of Real Estate: Chow Time! | The Phoenix Real Estate Guy
Posted at 15:16h, 02 June[…] to serve them up. And Andrew Mattie writing for Geek Estate Blog serves up a dandy with, “Silly MLS IDX Rules”. As a broker, I deal with IDX sillyness on a regular basis. As an IDX vendor, Andrew deals […]
Brad Carroll - Dakno Marketing
Posted at 20:21h, 02 JuneI know another common MLS rule is no commingling of IDX data. I wonder how this plays out with companies like Redfin now showing MLS data and FSBO data. Love your product by the way!
A. Longo
Posted at 09:27h, 03 JuneWe just got spanked too…
http://boston.condodomain.com/blog/condodomain-gets-slapped/
Matt Goyer’s Real Estate Blog » Blog Archive » MLS Rules in Boston Get CondoDomain
Posted at 01:07h, 04 June[…] I was also pleased to read another post about similar issues, Silly MLS IDX Rules. […]
San Diego Homes
Posted at 14:02h, 22 AugustWhen I built my first VOW in 2002, the local mls here had a fit. They were not prepared for anyone to take their data and use it as a VOW. They came up with some patchwork rules with unintended consequences.
I feel for you that are in the IDX business.
Cynthia Pang
Posted at 13:25h, 02 OctoberYou can cross one silly rule off the list. Boston’s MLS PIN now allows brokerage sites to display a property’s address and its location on a map without requiring the user to register. So, people can browse properties without sharing their name and email address, and possibly getting spammed. Consumers still have to register to read the full listing details, but at least they can make sure the house is in the right area. Redfin implemented the change yesterday (10/1), but we expect more to follow very soon.
Regards,
Cynthia
Redfin
Andrew Mattie
Posted at 13:54h, 02 OctoberNice call, Cynthia! We flipped the switch on our own IDX to disable registration for searching MLS PIN pretty much as soon as we heard Redfin had done it. A big thanks to Redfin for finally getting MLS PIN to see the light!
Sandy @ SA Commercial Property
Posted at 22:22h, 03 SeptemberI have just stumbled upon this site and have found it to be interesting and informative.
This was interesting to read have never heard of any of this before, so I have certainly learn't something new here. Cynthia's comment made a lot of sense, its amazing how one can do one thing and then almost in the same breath one can't.
Sandy @ SA Commercial Property
Posted at 05:22h, 04 SeptemberI have just stumbled upon this site and have found it to be interesting and informative.
This was interesting to read have never heard of any of this before, so I have certainly learn’t something new here. Cynthia’s comment made a lot of sense, its amazing how one can do one thing and then almost in the same breath one can’t.
Week in Review on the Real Estate Web
Posted at 13:59h, 01 February[…] Mattie posts at Geekestate a great list of odd MLS IDX rules. Sort of reminds one of those collections full of quirky laws on […]
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Avishai Weiss
Posted at 06:04h, 03 DecemberThe most likely reason that IDX prohibit showing the actual address, at least for non-exclusive listings, is to prevent the buyer/renter from going around the broker. It’s pretty silly, though. The more information brokers keep to themselves, the more power they have, and the less transparent the market.
Mike
Posted at 11:53h, 08 FebruaryI’m working with a Clearwarer Beach realtor – http://www.clearwaterrealestateonline.com (an ongoing rebuild, IDx systems etc) – we are testing one IDX solution (Dakno IDX) at present – that does display addresses, and I have another one (Diverse Solutions) on a pure testing site which also shows these, and prints them too…
The other point “easily displayable information is intentionally withheld, requires potential buyers to
essentially waste someone’s time to find out the information”
I had suggested the use of the search tools should be open and not require a sign-up and login process.
My client thought this was a bad idea… so was not implemented. His viewpoint is he wants the potential leads, and the search tools are a hook to get contact details…
Thanks
Mike Otgaar
(Graphicline Web Management)
SwiftDay
Posted at 00:04h, 13 JuneWe need the RMLS data for a web service that we are building for real estate agents. But they wont give it to us, because we are just developers.. Which is okay, but where do we get the IDX feed which is developer friendly? Basically all we care about is the API to get the data from IDX feed.. We dont need UI and other crap. I looked at IDX Broker, but not sure if they will allow us to use the data in our application.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 07:16h, 13 JuneTwo other links for you…
https://geekestateblog.com/real-estate-tech-question-getting-nationwide-mls-listing-data/
and look at http://sparkplatform.com/