IDX listing battle remains heated
When you enter a listing into the MLS, its final destination is and has been under fire for some time. Who has the rights to it and where does it end up? Do you get a say in the matter?
At the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Midyear Conference, the board of directors took a vote on how franchisors may index and display IDX listings, ruling that if brokers want their listings displayed on national franchise websites (like KW or RE/MAX), they will have to opt in.
The vote follows their November vote to allow franchisors to index and display listings in all markets from which their franchisees granted permission, and follows NAR’s public inquiry on the topic that began in 2009 that was open to member input and entailed months of research.
The vote, explained by NAR
According to the NAR, “the directors voted to add an opt-in provision, effective 30 days from passage, to the “franchisor index and display” portion of the Internet Data Exchange (IDX) policy that the board adopted in November 2010. That provision gives franchisors the right to index and display listing data from their franchisees’ IDX feeds on their national Web sites.”
“The decision to add the opt-in centered on the directors’ concerns about the availability of listing information to non-participants without brokerages’ consent. Brokers representing Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, Home Services of America, and the Realty Alliance led the way toward the policy change; those companies oppose the new IDX policy and had backed a failed proposal to repeal the policy.”
Hitting the pause button
The battle is not over as to who has permission to use your listings and in what fashion as the proverbial “pause” button has been hit so that a “work group” can reevaluate the franchise IDX policy by the time the fall NAR convention rolls around.
Do you think hitting pause is good enough? Do you care what happens to your listings or is your goal to sell a house regardless of what website it is shown on? Or is it unfair for franchises to be the search result for listings that you fought to represent? It’s a sticky situation, tell us in comments what you think of the current policy and what should happen next.
