By Vicki Trapp, ASP, CRS, GRI, SRES, SRS, President
Greater Chattanooga Association of REALTORS®
In Greater Chattanooga and across the country, the real estate industry is all a buzz about listing syndication. Just this past week, we had an Association membership meeting on this exact topic. And we all learned a few things about listing syndication that we did not know previously. This got me to thinking that the general public also might also benefit from a little Listing Syndication 101. The basics, if you will.
And we should start at the beginning. The very beginning when an individual licensee affiliates himself with a real estate firm. The managing broker of the real estate firm chooses to become a member of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors. Then managing broker decides to participate in the Association’s optional service called the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
By participating in the MLS, the managing broker offers cooperation and compensation to the other real estate brokerages that also participate in the MLS. In short, the firm representing a seller alerts all the other participating firms about the new property on the market and offers a commission to the firm who represent the buyer in a successful transaction. The blanket, unilateral offer of compensation to other participants is what defines an MLS. However, there are other places where listing data also can reside.
Currently, the MLS has agreements with various entities to supply them the MLS data on active listings. In addition to making active listings available to all consumers via www.gcar.net, the Greater Chattanooga Association’s MLS provides data to the Times Free Press and www.Realtor.com. In addition, we provide data to ListHub, which in turn publishes the data to numerous channels across the web. This re-publishing of listing data is known as listing syndication.
There are strong and varied opinions on whether listing syndication is a positive for consumers. Not to mention, some question whether this good for the real estate industry. There have been comparisons to what happened with other industries – bookstores and travel agencies, to name a few. Consumers no longer have to drive to a brick and mortar retail store to purchase reading materials. Consumers can now book their next dream vacation online without the knowledge and expertise of a local, travel agent. It is easy to argue that Realtors simply are concerned about their livelihood. However, for us it really is about what is best for the clients and customers we serve.
While we have control over the sites to which we send our data, we cannot control the sites that obtain data from a variety of sources. As a result, there is legitimate concern about the accuracy and timeliness of the data. The Realtor Code of Ethics obligates us to present a true picture in our real estate communications and to look out for the best interests of our clients. Therefore, we are closely monitoring all the places where our local market data resides, whether obtained directly from the MLS or elsewhere.
We strive for sellers to have great exposure for their listed home and not get lost among those homes that currently are not for sale, or never were. Sellers should expect that on all sites, the value of their home is not over or under inflated. At the same time, buyers should expect that property values they see online for a potential next home are accurate and not create unrealistic expectations among buyers.
Locally, we are working diligently to ensure our data is kept current, regardless of where we determine it should reside, so as to benefit both sellers and buyers. As an Association, our goal is to provide the most up-to-date and accurate information to serve our community’s real estate needs.