Recent Changes by NAR and Social Networking Properties
On Saturday, NAR made a new policy that lets the local MLS set policies on how agents can (legally) post listings into a social media platform.
NAR just gave one more weapon to the local MLS's and a reason to "restrict listing data," from being shown on anyone's Facebook posts or, change the way and manner in which we can (legally) do it now.
Think about this for a minute.
Right now, thousands of agents post their listings on their Facebook pages every single day. My lake house in Monument is for sale and I posted it on this new platform called AdWerx. If you never heard of AdWerx, I'll cover more on them in a few more paragraphs below.
Promoting a listing Weblink or URL is pretty darn easy today, thanks to social media.
You simply copy and paste the MLS / IDX link into Facebook. It traces the link and pops up a few photos for us to pick from, too. Wow! What could be easier? I can copy and paste dozens of listings into my Facebook wall and on the walls of all my friended subscribers.
The thinking: Sooner or later, if the agent peppers enough MLS links into your social media posts, someone out there is bound to see a home they like and ka-ching! The agent makes a sale.
Suffice it to say, this one simple tool has become instantly loved by thousands of real estate agents. And why not? It's fast, fun and easy way to post dozens of listings into the news feeds and walls hundreds of thousands of people that are following you with just a couple of mouse clicks.
But "technically speaking," that listing data link or URL doesn't belong to the agent or broker. It actually belongs to the local MLS. Regardless, almost everyone tends to take that for granted.
Facebook and other forms of social media has spoiled a lot of us. Agents quickly learn to copy and paste listing URL's. Many agents know how to "Tweet their home inventory," and how to post listings on Facebook (even as ads).
But if the MLS Gestapo gets nasty about this, the practice of how we post home listings to Social Media will certainly be policed. But the Dark Side of the force could mean: It may soon be turned into a cost per agent to continue that practice. This is where Darth Vader says: I have you now!
Millions of posts on Facebook never get deleted. And that can be a problem if homes are showing up for sale months after they closed and sold. No homeowner wants to see their listing still for sale months after they bought it.
There's a lot of Real estate brokers out there that want to help reduce that problem of homes showing up for sale that are not really for sale anymore. Abbott Realty Group (ARG) is one such broker that announced two years ago they were fed up with the listing syndicators and the real estate marketing headaches they create.
Jim Abbott of ARG shocked the entire real estate market they had enough of the over-promises made to them by Trulia, Zillow and the National Association of Realtors' 'Move.com,' website.
The Genie is out of the bottle when it comes to the practice of agents posting homes for sale on Craigs List, Facebook, Twitter, ActiveRain or any blog they can find.
One way of cutting down on sold/expired listings would be to show a display message when someone clicks the link an show something like, "Sorry, this home is no longer offered for sale."
But not every agent does a copy-paste of an MLS link. Many agents (and I am guilty of this, too ) will simply grab the best looking home photo and manually type in the MLS # and the price and a few sentences describing the property. I ran several Facebook ads on my lake house for sale but they expired of course when my $60 ran out. So that's a built in safe guard there.
But for homes that seem to remain for sale on-line forever because the agent or listing syndicator forgot to take them down after the home sold or was withdrawn -- you can understand why the MLS groups and plenty of upset homeowners are screaming: "...Houston, we have a problem. My home sold seven months ago. Why is it still showing up for sale at 'blah blah dot com?' "
This is why the only enforcement I see to reduce that practice will be some form of 'revenue generation by slapping agents with penalties,' by MLS groups.
You get caught, you cough up $40 bucks a day for every day that home (that was sold or withdrawn) is still showing on Broker Bob's Facebook page.
That will have an immediate and positive impact on reducing the sloppy copy-paste practices by a lot of agents blindly pasting homes for sale on any website they can find.
Will the MLS Gestapo stop there? Nope. Not hardly.
Listing syndicators and IDX developers will be on NAR's radar screen next.
NAR's Saturday decision could create some interesting problems for a darling new startup company called: AdWerx.
AdWerx has poured millions of dollars advertising to agents they can list a property and have your face and your listing shown on the sidebar ads of websites like the Wall Street Journal, CNN and other websites where you won't see Trulia or Zillow ads for agents and homes.
What happens to AdWerx if the MLS creates new rules and stops syndication to everybody? Well for starters, such a decision could mean companies like AdWerx simply go out of business. Or, the local MLS can force huge data licensing fees to them to pay.
Either way, the cause for some alarm is here. Posting your listings on AdWerx as of last Saturday's decision, could be another real estate marketing tool that's here today, but gone tomorrow.
[ It's important to note that AdWerx does not take listings from homeowners -- just active real estate agents. ]
Until we know exactly what each MLS is going to do with this new NAR rule to make policy on how, when, where, why and how much brokers or agents are going to have to pay to continue the practice of posting listings on any social portal or platform.
Hang on people. It's going to be a bumpy ride from here. bwilson
On Saturday, NAR made a new policy that lets the local MLS set policies on how agents can (legally) post listings into a social media platform.
NAR just gave one more weapon to the local MLS's and a reason to "restrict listing data," from being shown on anyone's Facebook posts or, change the way and manner in which we can (legally) do it now.
Think about this for a minute.
Right now, thousands of agents post their listings on their Facebook pages every single day. My lake house in Monument is for sale and I posted it on this new platform called AdWerx. If you never heard of AdWerx, I'll cover more on them in a few more paragraphs below.
Promoting a listing Weblink or URL is pretty darn easy today, thanks to social media.
You simply copy and paste the MLS / IDX link into Facebook. It traces the link and pops up a few photos for us to pick from, too. Wow! What could be easier? I can copy and paste dozens of listings into my Facebook wall and on the walls of all my friended subscribers.
The thinking: Sooner or later, if the agent peppers enough MLS links into your social media posts, someone out there is bound to see a home they like and ka-ching! The agent makes a sale.
Suffice it to say, this one simple tool has become instantly loved by thousands of real estate agents. And why not? It's fast, fun and easy way to post dozens of listings into the news feeds and walls hundreds of thousands of people that are following you with just a couple of mouse clicks.
But "technically speaking," that listing data link or URL doesn't belong to the agent or broker. It actually belongs to the local MLS. Regardless, almost everyone tends to take that for granted.
Facebook and other forms of social media has spoiled a lot of us. Agents quickly learn to copy and paste listing URL's. Many agents know how to "Tweet their home inventory," and how to post listings on Facebook (even as ads).
But if the MLS Gestapo gets nasty about this, the practice of how we post home listings to Social Media will certainly be policed. But the Dark Side of the force could mean: It may soon be turned into a cost per agent to continue that practice. This is where Darth Vader says: I have you now!
Millions of posts on Facebook never get deleted. And that can be a problem if homes are showing up for sale months after they closed and sold. No homeowner wants to see their listing still for sale months after they bought it.
There's a lot of Real estate brokers out there that want to help reduce that problem of homes showing up for sale that are not really for sale anymore. Abbott Realty Group (ARG) is one such broker that announced two years ago they were fed up with the listing syndicators and the real estate marketing headaches they create.
Jim Abbott of ARG shocked the entire real estate market they had enough of the over-promises made to them by Trulia, Zillow and the National Association of Realtors' 'Move.com,' website.
The Genie is out of the bottle when it comes to the practice of agents posting homes for sale on Craigs List, Facebook, Twitter, ActiveRain or any blog they can find.
One way of cutting down on sold/expired listings would be to show a display message when someone clicks the link an show something like, "Sorry, this home is no longer offered for sale."
But not every agent does a copy-paste of an MLS link. Many agents (and I am guilty of this, too ) will simply grab the best looking home photo and manually type in the MLS # and the price and a few sentences describing the property. I ran several Facebook ads on my lake house for sale but they expired of course when my $60 ran out. So that's a built in safe guard there.
But for homes that seem to remain for sale on-line forever because the agent or listing syndicator forgot to take them down after the home sold or was withdrawn -- you can understand why the MLS groups and plenty of upset homeowners are screaming: "...Houston, we have a problem. My home sold seven months ago. Why is it still showing up for sale at 'blah blah dot com?' "
This is why the only enforcement I see to reduce that practice will be some form of 'revenue generation by slapping agents with penalties,' by MLS groups.
You get caught, you cough up $40 bucks a day for every day that home (that was sold or withdrawn) is still showing on Broker Bob's Facebook page.
That will have an immediate and positive impact on reducing the sloppy copy-paste practices by a lot of agents blindly pasting homes for sale on any website they can find.
Will the MLS Gestapo stop there? Nope. Not hardly.
Listing syndicators and IDX developers will be on NAR's radar screen next.
NAR's Saturday decision could create some interesting problems for a darling new startup company called: AdWerx.
AdWerx has poured millions of dollars advertising to agents they can list a property and have your face and your listing shown on the sidebar ads of websites like the Wall Street Journal, CNN and other websites where you won't see Trulia or Zillow ads for agents and homes.
What happens to AdWerx if the MLS creates new rules and stops syndication to everybody? Well for starters, such a decision could mean companies like AdWerx simply go out of business. Or, the local MLS can force huge data licensing fees to them to pay.
Either way, the cause for some alarm is here. Posting your listings on AdWerx as of last Saturday's decision, could be another real estate marketing tool that's here today, but gone tomorrow.
[ It's important to note that AdWerx does not take listings from homeowners -- just active real estate agents. ]
Until we know exactly what each MLS is going to do with this new NAR rule to make policy on how, when, where, why and how much brokers or agents are going to have to pay to continue the practice of posting listings on any social portal or platform.
Hang on people. It's going to be a bumpy ride from here. bwilson