Move over MLS, here comes the BLC
It was reported to me by a very reliable source that today the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR) fired the first shot in an upcoming battle by many Listings Services to reclaim their listings from the public domain. MIBOR announced in a closed door meeting at its Indianapolis HQ, that it is intending to launch the “Broker Listing Cooperative†or the BLC, a separate listing service available only to its members. The purpose of the BLC is reportedly to “recapture our listings from the public domainâ€
Broker Listing Cooperative - WHOIS
In fact the use of the term “Broker Listing Cooperative†and its acronym BLC will be tightly controlled. As I understand, only active MIBOR members may use it, and their will be no feeds to external websites, not even to participating brokers. It was stated that this initiative was created with the advice and consent of the National Realtors Association, and that MIBOR will be the first of many AOR’s to enact such measures, as the Associations look to reclaim their data.
The creation of this BLC, is most likely an end-around lawsuits pending against NAR, regarding the so-called anti-competitive use of the MLS and IDX. The reasoning behind this move is reportedly; “The excessive use of the terms MLS and IDX have made them a commodity and subject to claims that the listings are “public domainâ€, many outside of legitimate real estate professionals have usurped these terms for their own benefit.â€
This kind of stuff will only benefit large brokers since they can use their market share to dominate the local online market as they opt out of the IDX feed completely, smaller brokerages and online services will see their data dry up. The small guys are going to have trouble keeping consumer eyeballs, even with nifty tools.
This doesn’t help NAR’s image, especially at this time when the stock market is tumbling on housing and credit fears. I believe this will be seen as protectionist, especially since more and more consumers are looking for transparency, and NAR seems to be tightening its control of the housing data.
DISCLAIMER: I was not at this meeting and have no firsthand knowledge of comments made by MIBOR officials. I will gladly retract any incorrect information.
[...] Mike at Agent Scoreboard reports on the new head in sand technology the brokerages are working on. Move over MLS, here comes the BLC [...]
Pingback by The Feed Bag — July 27, 2007 @ 7:15 pm
I hope this rumor isn’t true. To “recapture our listings from the public domain†is another way of saying that the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors would be planning to limit the dissemination of their seller’s listings, thereby abdicating their fiduciary responsibility to use all reasonable steps to maximize their listings exposure to potential buyers. If I was a home seller I would rather go with a broker who is disseminating my listing as widely as possible on the Internet through as many websites as possible. That also reduces the seller’s risk that the broker who is trying to help the buyer get the lowest price turns out to be the same broker who had previously agreed to help the seller get the highest price.
If this rumor is true it could help hasten the demise of small and midsized independant Indianapolis brokers. On the other hand, craigslist and other rapidly growing public listing venues will be delighted!
If the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission allow an anticompetitive concept such as this to go forward, I would hope that the Indianapolis independant brokers would then band together and stand up for their rights by creating their own independant local MLS rather than support this threat to their continued viability. That could create an interesting competition - home buyers could go to the collective listings of the independants through their own indepentant MLS and their collective websites, or go to the big guys websites, each with only their respective in-house listings only.
The small and independant real estate brokers who are the heart and soul of the industry have a common interest with American homeowners in opposing any large brokers who try to simultaneously put small and independant real estate brokers out of business and abdicate their fiduciary responsibility to home sellers and buyers.
I’m rooting for the independants and for American homeowners!
Comment by bruce hahn — July 27, 2007 @ 9:54 pm
[...] More and more real estate multiple listing services (MLSs) are being re-named “broker exchanges” or “listing exchanges” or something similar.  There are several reasons for these changes, such as wanting to distinguish themselves from the MLS organizations being attacked by the DOJ and to make clear that their MLS is for brokers only and not the consuming public. [...]
Pingback by FBS Blog » Blog Archive » Is the term MLS dead? — August 30, 2007 @ 2:39 pm