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|  IDX in Action: Some associations are old pros at sharing listing data By Carolyn Schwaar The idea of brokers posting listings from other brokers online is nothing new for Beth Murphy, CEO of the Regional MLS of Portland, Ore. “We’ve offered a program for three years letting brokers indicate whether they want their listings sent to realtor.com, posted on the MLS’s site, or posted on the websites of other brokers,” she says. To Murphy, the idea that all MLSs allow their members to download and post listing data makes perfect business sense for the industry. No doubt the Internet is re-shaping how real estate brokers do business. Online, the only commodity is information. Enabling brokers to display on their websites a vast listing of all homes for sale in their area is a significant development. It’s a powerful new tool that positions them as information providers as well as service providers. The main advantage of Internet data exchange, or IDX, is that it gives members the opportunity to keep site visitors from leaving their site to go to other sites in order to see all of the properties available in a market area. However, the competitive advantage of this is in the eye of the beholder. Local market factors will play a decisive role in the ultimate popularity of IDX among brokers. So even when brokers and their agents are allowed to post MLS data on their sites, AEs are asking: will they? Judging from IDX-like pro-grams that have been in place for years, they will—but it may take some time for them to fully become comfortable with the concept. Michael Canova, CFO of the Georgia MLS, has nearly 95 percent participation in his “opt-out” IDX program that launched in June, but only about 10 percent of member brokers are actively posting or framing the IDX data on their sites, he says. On the other hand, after three years of opt-in data downloading availability, more than 50 percent of offices in the North Texas Real Estate Information System are actively using IDX in some fashion, says Jim Harrison, CEO of the Bedford, Texas-based regional MLS. North Texas had its own policy and regulations in place for its reciprocal listing program but it recently adopted NAR’s IDX regulations, which were very similar, says Harrison. Portland likewise has nearly 98 percent subscriber participation in its opt-in reciprocal listing program. But opt-in—as opposed to opt out—programs report that participation takes a while to catch on. The opt-in program of the MLS of Northern Illinois, which went live in late July, has just over 10 percent of its brokers participating in the pro-gram. That’s a low number, admits spokesperson Brad Tertell, but they’re confident it will snowball based on the overwhelmingly positive reaction of that 10 percent. Whether or not brokers elect to participate and use the data is a matter of education, publicity, and word-of-mouth, AEs say. “We launched the program in June, and some are just now starting to ‘get it,’” says Georgia’s Canova. “It takes education and knowledge to make the program work.” While there are many benefits of being able to provide a wide variety of property listings on their websites, some MLSs that already offer framing and customized feeds wonder if their members will be interested in creating their own online IDX databases. Members of Information and Real Estate Services, Northern Colorado’s regional MLS, have been allowed to link to and frame its popular property listing site for years, which leaves CEO Lauren Emery wondering why her members would want to spend money to create a property listing site of their own. “The big offices may be chomping at the bit to make IDX happen, but for other offices, there’s nothing unique in it,” she says. The IDX rules say that MLSs must offer their members the ability to download MLS data, but can offer framing as an additional option for members who don’t want to download. Framing and downloading Typically, brokers have had two ways of presenting MLS data on their websites: they can either frame or link to an outside source, which is usually the MLS’s public website, realtor.com, or another aggregate listing site. IDX allows brokers the option of presenting the data on their own website without linking or framing another site. This option is more costly than framing because brokers then have to—in varying levels of sophistication—build their own listing databases just like realtor.com and other aggregate sites do. Indeed, among the three IDX data-sharing options, framing or “smart framing” is the overwhelmingly popular choice, according to one IDX technology vendor who has worked with many East Coast MLSs and their broker members. With smart framing, the framed website is “conscious” of the site framing it and offers specific content accordingly. Most MLSs with public websites have licensed their members to frame the site, but for MLSs that have never before offered members a way to display data on their sites—and do not have a public website— downloading is the sharing method of choice. This method requires participants to download the listing data, usually in its simplest form, and find their own way to create a searchable and fully-functioning website. When it comes to finding soft-ware that will massage the raw MLS data into a website, Murphy says large franchisers like Century 21 have in-house software, while mid-size brokers hire third party vendors or Web developers to organize the data. Smaller brokers in her area often use general-use off-the-shelf database programs, which work well to create online property search functions, she says. Northern Illinois also only offers the download option in their IDX program. While Tertell was concerned that this method would cost smaller brokers money to develop sites online, he hasn’t fielded any complaints yet, he says. Web developers, vendors, and designers approach Tertell regularly looking to partner on a frame-able site, but he says the MLS doesn’t want the liability of offering members anything other than the basic data at this time. Georgia, on the other hand, offers free downloading but has partnered with a technology vendor to offer members a framing solution and custom web and database design for a fee. “We’ve contracted with a provider to give our member's cost-effective alternatives to designing a database them-selves from scratch,” says Canova. North Texas also offers members free downloading but sells software and service packages for a yearly fee starting at $350. Working with a vendor, Harrison offers packages that combine the ability to post IDX information online with lead generation and other sales and marketing tools for agents and brokers. Harrison found the online traffic to be so large he had to purchase a separate server, called a distributed database utility, devoted solely to IDX. “I have some brokers who upload the IDX data every two hours,” he says. Before Harrison had a separate IDX server, security issues arose when a vendor who no longer had a member client still had access to the MLS data. Despite the new openness of listings data, security is still a concern among MLSs, along with ensuring the proper and legal use of the data by members. The potential for members to manipulate listings is there, AEs say, but very few have reported any flagrant abuses. “Almost all misuse of data was the result of ignorance or a member’s [third-party] vendor not understanding the regulations,” says Canova. For MLSs that have allowed members to download listings for years, IDX still presents some challenges, they say. Most agree that the technology end is the easier part. It will take some effort, however, to get changes to their policies written and approved that bring them into compliance with the NAR IDX policy, not to mention the challenge of educating members. Three years ago, when a few MLSs were offering to share listing data with their members, other MLSs were working diligently to keep MLS data from being illegally posted online. Who knew which way the tide would turn? But today, those few MLS who have had the technology, policy, and practices in place for years are well ahead of the game. IDX Resources For more resources, an introduction to IDX, official policies, example broker policies, powerpoint presentations, and the latest changes, go online to: www.realtor.org/realtorae.nsf/pages/IDX. Also available online is the IDX implementation guide that outlines the technology, policy, and legal concerns every association must consider when implementing IDX. This 56-page guide also provides a check-list for IDX implementation. |
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