Housing News
NAR board hits pause button on final franchise IDX policy decision
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.
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Housing News
Average age of houses on the rise, so is it now better or worse to buy new?
With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.
The average home age is higher than ever
(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.
With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.
Prices of new homes on the rise
Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.
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Housing News
Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?
The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.
Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes
(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.
Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.
So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.
1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues
It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.
Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.
2. Two major media brands emerge
Last fall, the News Corp. acquisition of Move, Inc. was given the green light by the feds, and this month, Zillow finalized their acquisition of Trulia.
…Click here to continue reading this story…
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Matthew Thomson
May 17, 2011 at 9:15 am
Since we have the KWLS, we have more control over our listings than most. That being said, when other franchises pull our listings, it does come from our local MLS, not the KWLS. Trulia, Zillow, etc pull from the KWLS so the agent gets all their leads which is great.
Bottom line for me centers around 2 things.
1) I just want the home to sell, and as long as other websites are giving me and/or my office credit for the listing I appreciate that they're advertising it.
2) Nobody looks at franchise sites anymore. Other than ReMax.com, no franchise site that I'm aware of is even in the same ball park as the 3rd party sites (Trulia, Realtor, etc).
steve
July 24, 2011 at 8:36 pm
I want my listing everywhere in the world. What a great opportunity to sell homes. Just think of the mathematical odds of selling a home goes up too?