But which is better for your business:

Buying “leads” from places that use your wife’s listings to generate those leads?
Or,
People surfing directly into her own web site (your online office so to speak)?

Or maybe you let those same companies stand outside your office at Lago di Grata Circle and interfere with people from entering your office? Unless, of course, they give their personal information to the company first so they can go in and tell you they want to come into your office.

Why is it better for her listings to be used to interfere with people walking into her own office unimpeded?

Maybe people can’t find her site very easily. But isn’t that partly due to the pollution and competitiion caused by the sites you say are taking over the real estate business? The other part is due to her own effectiveness at hiring a programmer to SEO her site ahead of the very sites you appear to be surrendering to.

The fact is (although not publicized because of the funds behind the large sites) that many MLSs are not sending their data to those sites any more. Couple that with the fact that over 1/2 of the licensees in the US are not in any MLS, and their problems are amplified.

Listings are the gold. And brokers have remembered the golden rule – the one with the gold….

By the way, I am linking to your wifes site from all the towns she lists property in – so customers have another way to walk into her office without interferance.

Tell Anne-marie: Happy listing and selling! And, I play the cash flow game, too. It is a fun and educational alternative to monopoly.

This discussion is irrelevant. You are discussing if buggywhip X should be used for all horses or if each person should use their own homemade buggywhip. The MLS’s are a dying breed.

Zillow, Trulia, GoogleBase, FinestExpert, and dozens more are on their way to attempting to eradicate the MLS’s. It may not be explicitly stated that way, but then again, once the camel’s nose gets under the tent…

The easily recognized need for real estate agents and our MLS’s is disappearing. Gone are the listing books. The MLS is no longer this high-tech thing that is absolutely required to get your house sold. Guess what? The consumer now has all the technology at their fingertips. Don’t something like 87% of all home searches start on the web now. The “only” thing lacking out in the consumer controlled world is standardization; but, it will come.

I know there are arguments that agents and our MLS’s are needed and I think you’d better get them polished up before we all get voted off the island.

A national MLS access point initiative for GRI designated REALTORS was launched in February, 2009. Exclusive territories (counties) are being assigned on a first come-first served basis. The design is based upon a map using drill-down capability to access individual states and then counties supported by GRI websites that use embedded IDX links.

This is a WIN-WIN: the benefit to the consumer is that they can easily search for properties of interest, and the benefit to the GRI is that they stand a chance to be contacted directly for support.

More details:

So.., what my thoughts was is to leave EVERYTHING as it is. All MLS offices should continue to process their listings as they are doing and control their own businesses. This keeps local controls in place and probably a better end result. –

What I was proposing was that a National MLS would simply pull its search listing direct from each MLS as needed, not begin to do their own input per State…. why re-invent the wheel.

And as for each office and type of “Brand” doing their “own thing” so to speak… well I ok with that too. Is it for the Public good, or does it just help those who have the most ability dollars and power? Infrastructures can be local and yet, tie into National or even World Wide resources.

This is American (as people put it) and we as Americans are very independent. We want our “right” to bear arms.., we want our “right” to smoke cigarettes, even if it is proven to harm others. Ah.., the freedoms we have.

More than 50% of Licensed Real Estate Agents do NOT belong to the Board of Realtors and actually have no right to call themselves Realtors. Its true…, but all agents enjoy the freedoms, rights and privileges that legislation has brought about by this very group.

Expansion happens. Some people will never want to share and will try to corner their own little piece of the market.., and that’s ok for them. This is America. But for those who want to share and have a bigger idea of what can be…. That’s ok too. IMHO.

Kind regards,
Don

Actually there may not be ANY non-MLS listed homes, now that most of the local alternative pricing model companies that used to do “pocket listings” have either changed their business models or closed their doors…)

Of course I highlight MY listings on my site and link to a full-MLS search, as many other agents do.

My point is that our MLS is VERY VERY good and competent. Nationalizing it would water it down and make it less effective.

However, again, I am ALL FOR an aggregate site that pulls data from the different MLS’s (as your site appears to possibly be capable of), so long as mu local MLS remains in tact and managed/ran locally.

Many agent sites also include listings that are not in MLS.

As for those who only show their own listings, they appear to be able to do business that way.