I know I'm stating a real estate maxim but we as Real Estate Agents have legal fiduciary responsibility to their client. To me, that implies it is our legal responsibility to push our listings to as many places where there might be customers as possible. Most agencies in Hamptons subscribe to Realnet, a non-MLS, non RETS compliant and extremely costly listing program requiring labor intensive data entry or customized programming by each agency to market their listings. With Realnet's addition of OREX last year, their version of MLS without rules, Realnet & real estate agencies have tried to maintain their insular hold on listings but still fail to capitalize on the power of a true RETS compliant (MLS) Multiple Listing System.
Real Estate Portals are springing up daily. A few years ago it was Trulia & Zillow, last year StreetEasy and recently the Hamptons and North Fork Realty Association Portal http://www.hanfra/.com. A year from now we'll be adding many more sites all geared to assisting buyers find homes. For a real estate agency it's not about which specific site to be a part of but how easy can we be a part of all of them. The ability to push listings quickly and cost effectively to these sites is paramount to leveraging the web for the Real Estate Industry – Agency, Client & Customer. That where RETS compliant data comes in:
"The Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS) facilitates data transfer between partners in the real estate industry. Creating and improving RETS is a collaborative effort to simplify moving real estate information from system to system and simplify solution development efforts. As RETS usage matures and expands, MLS with geographic overlaps can create data-sharing policies that provide their members a single point of entry to search multiple MLS data sets." - http://.rets.org/
I believe the financial hardship of the industry will be the only cause and effect prompting change. When agencies are either forced to curtail spending or recognize the efficiency and cost savings of participating in MLS with RETS compliant data then change will happen.
If you are an agency, tired of paying exorbitant costs for your listing program, need to push your listings as far as the Internet will reach and not worried about someone from "Up Island" (Think "Blockbusting") with no knowledge of the market will show you up, then please email me ck@listor.net , so I can stay in touch with you on progressing towards a better solution.
"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent BHS's positions, strategies or opinions."
"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent BHS's positions, strategies or opinions."
