PUBLIC ACCESS TO MLS LISTINGS : Realtors Loosen Grip on ‘The Book’
Real estate agents always seem to clutch their MLS books tightly to their bosoms. Ask to borrow a copy overnight and they look horrified and mumble something about it being against board rules.
Are they really worried that you’ll crib valuable information from the Multiple Listing Service and then try to close a sale without them? Well, that could happen.
But their real worry is confidentiality. The MLS books--which list most homes and condos for sale in a given area and are owned by local realty groups--are filled with private phone numbers, financial information, directions to hidden keys, etc.
Still, wouldn’t it be nice to take a book home, settle into a cozy chair and leisurely thumb through for possibilities. It feels so direct. No middle person interpreting what you want. You’re not trying to do the agent out of a commission--just making house-hunting more efficient.
In Dallas, the realtors have loosened their grip on MLS listings--with a high-tech twist. And many realty associations around the country, including some in Southern California, are watching the experiment.
In a program that started in February, anyone in the Dallas area with a computer and modem can call up the Greater Dallas MLS’ new Homefacts system and look at slightly abbreviated listings for more than 8,000 houses and condos (out of 15,000 for sale). The sellers have agreed to be listed; confidential information (home phones, commission rates, key boxes) has been eliminated.
House-hunters can call up listings by ZIP code, number of bedrooms, school district, map book grid, price, city or suburb. If they see something promising, they can contact the agent or leave an e-mail message to have the agent call them.
The Dallas service is free to buyers. Realtors pay a small fee to list properties on Homefacts, just as they do to be included in the MLS book and computer program available to brokers.
For the most part, Dallas agents are not worried that the new system will cut them out of the system.
“Data by itself is of no value,” said Sheila Rice, president of the Greater Dallas Assn. of Realtors. “It’s just a place to start. This is electronic advertising. It’s another way of getting the same information. It’s just more efficient to sort through the data.”
Dallas is way ahead of Southern California and the rest of the United States. The soonest that a Southland home shopper might be able to modem into MLS listings is this fall. And then, only if you want to buy in the San Fernando Valley.
The National Assn. of Realtors has left consumer access to MLS to local boards to handle as they see fit.
“It’s clearly not discouraged,” said NAR spokesman Jeff Lubar. “Essentially what we’re saying is that non-members will be able to access the information for a fee.” The details on fees will be set by local markets, who may decide not to charge a fee to the modem user but to the listing agent, as Dallas has opted to do.
Local boards in Southern California have widely differing opinions on the wisdom or necessity of allowing consumers direct access to listings.
The Combined Los Angeles Westside (CLAW) MLS is not talking about consumer access, according to MLS president Lannie Mott. “As far as any plan, any implementation, I haven’t heard a thing. We haven’t had any discussion at the CLAW level.”
(CLAW covers, and is owned by, the realtors’ associations for central Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Malibu, Southwest L.A., Culver City and Beverly Hills.)
In the San Fernando Valley, Jim Link, executive vice president of realtors’ association there, said his group began thinking about consumer access to listings about two years ago.
“It’s definitely inevitable,” he said. “We’ve discussed it and the current thinking is to offer some form of consumer access, possibly with an 800 number.”
Link sees direct consumer access by modem as a marketing tool. “The home-buying public is more sophisticated than it was 10 years ago,” he said. “(House-hunters) can go through the listings by themselves, get general information, then talk with a broker. It’ll mean less time in the car. It’s a natural progression of technology.”
While Link and his board members are enthusiastic about the technology, they feel it will only be worth doing if photos of the properties are included. They are now installing photo capabilities in their broker-accessed computer program and want to get that working smoothly before offering the consumer program. The best case scenario is fall 1994.
At the Orange County MLS, general manager Russ Bergeron said, “We realize that we’re going to have to move in this direction (consumer access). We’re investigating different ways to go.” It’s still in the “informal talk stage,” he said.
Bergeron said his MLS is concerned about making the right long-term choice. They could set up an 800 number, he said, or a 900 number. “We’re also looking into a possible joint venture with Prodigy or another on-line company,” Bergeron said. Or they could hold off a little and see if interactive television seems like the best idea.
Like other MLS organizations around the country, the Orange County MLS would hate to sink their money into a program that, down the line, goes the way of Beta and eight-track.
In Pasadena, which is part of the Multi-Regional MLS that covers the greater San Gabriel Valley, consumer access is not in the near future. “We’re not looking into public access at this time,” said spokesperson Jackie Johnson. “It’s not happening here. We’re proud of the fabulous services to the public we serve.”
The Arizona Regional MLS, which covers greater Phoenix, has joined forces with the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette newspapers to offer access by modem to reader/buyers.
The system is only a few months old but, by May, Michael Hibert, real estate advertising manager for the Republic, expects to have 2,000 listings (of 14,000 in the greater Phoenix market).
In Baltimore, Coldwell Banker/Grenpler, a real estate company with 22 offices, has been on-line for more than two years. Their newspaper ads have a line that reads “Modem owner: Our computer talks to your computer.” Dial a local number, hit a few keys and most of Coldwell Banker’s listings (about 15% of the greater Baltimore market) are on screen.
“We use this as a weapon to get listings,” said owner Don Grenpler. “We tell sellers this advertises their listing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. People come in the office with printouts in hand, wanting to see the listing agent. We’ve definitely sold homes from it.”
Grenpler credits the success of the system on having in-house computer experts and agents who were willing to give it a go. “There were mixed emotions at first,” he said. “Agents worrying that public access seemed on the surface to negate the need for an agent. But it’s worked out great. The world is just now catching up with us.”
While local realty associations wrestle with their options or dismiss the subject, house-hunters with computers already have limited access to real estate listings. The major on-line systems (Prodigy, CompuServe and America Online) offer real estate listings of varying sophistication.
CompuServe offers classified ads by owners and some agent listings, from single-family homes to grocery stores. The number of California residential listings is small: 255 for the whole state.
“We don’t have too many California listings,” said spokesman Dave Kishler, who added that company is not exploring the idea of hooking up with MLS boards.
America Online has several real estate-oriented departments: one called MLS, others offering advice and mortgage rates. Online’s MLS has about 6,000 listings for the country, 299 for California. It’s a time-consuming search for listings in a specific city. They are not organized geographically and are currently accessible only by the date they were put on-line.
Many listings are little more than business cards put on by real estate agents.
Prodigy has joined with Homes & Land Magazine (which publishes free magazines of real estate listings in 300 markets around the country) to offer Homes & Land Electronic Magazine to its users.
This service has 100,000 listings nationwide, according to Bob Horning, Homes & Land’s vice president of business development, with a goal of 2 million listings. They can be sorted by city, price and style and, in a few months, by number of bedrooms and other criteria. Photos are planned by summer.
Homes & Land has used the same extensive data base as the printed magazine but the Prodigy component has advantages: sorting by criteria and continual updating. Horning said that sometime this summer, three other on-line services (Genie, CompuServe and America Online) are expected to be hooked up to the same database.
