The article linked below focuses attention on the perceived problem of data pirating, and the efforts being made to stop it:
http://www.inman.com/2013/07/08/new-group-to-coordinate-action-against-mls-data-pirates/
Realtors get fired up about data pirating, yet, you never hear anyone in the industry trying to fix what is much more of a threat to our existence, the withholding of listings.
These Pre-MLS sales are:
1. Bad for sellers.
2. Bad for buyers.
3. Bad for agents (except the sand-bagger).
The system is so screwed up that the C.A.R. has a form that endorses this practice, but they don’t have a form to assist with handling a bidding war!
Click here: SEL to see the form that delays MLS input, or excludes it altogether, squashing the benefit of open-market exposure – which is in the best interest of the buyers and sellers.
The MLS is becoming the database of last resort.
With the tight inventory likely to last a while, realtors will keep hoarding their new listings, hoping to double-dip the commission. The MLS will be where the duds end up, like loopnet.
We are going the way of commercial brokers – let’s just admit it to the public, and ourselves, so the rules of engagement are clear.
Or let’s be transaction brokers where we don’t have any agency responsibility, now permitted in 25 states (mentioned in this article):
http://www.inman.com/2011/11/01/dual-agency-and-double-dipping-still-risky-business/
The sand-bagging of listings is being perpetrated by the biggest agents, and the most well-known brokerages – it’s not just an occasional little guy pulling a fast one. As a result, nobody within the industry will be disrupting it.
The pinch-zoom for ipads is now enabled – thanks for mentioning!
These type of efforts always seem to back fire on the organizations that attempt them. But it just makes the opportunity to come up with something that replaces the local MLS’s and/or the 6% Realtor commission even better. As long as the tax rolls remain public you’ll be able to market the heck out of in house deals that rook the buyers or the sellers. Such as such realtor group just lost this seller over $100K by doing the deal in house. Don’t leave money on the table, do business with us instead.
CRE very few transactions is cutthroat inside baseball for buyers, sellers not so much. Rez RE too many transactions to not have a public market place, but ya sellers gotta keep em honest cause agents can resist anything but temptation.