Realty Times May 26, 1999

Letters to the Editor

RE: National Intranet MLS is Here, and It's Free

What a great idea! I wonder why no one ever thought of this before?

Now of course it does raise a few questions.

  • Why would Boards or MLSs provide their databases to HomeExposure so they could be put out of business?
  • The article mentioned up to 100% savings - why the sliding scale? Is it free or not?
  • Who will provide the conversion resources?
  • Who will provide the support resources?
  • Who will provide the training resources?
  • It's not free if it requires an ISP to access it.
  • What about interstate commerce rules?
  • What about RESPA? Who will the advertisers be - non-real estate related vendors?
  • How will they know who is a licensed agent or not?
  • Will they allow consumers to put their listings on too?
  • Who will acquire and pay for tax/assessor/sales data?
  • If their is billing involved who will do it?

This made a nice press release but it sounds like they have a lot of work to do.

Russ Bergeron - General Manager, Southern California MLS (SoCalMLS)
101 East Lincoln Avenue, Suite 120, Anaheim, CA 92805-3203
RussBergeron@SoCalMLS.com

Of course it's a killer idea and we are proud to be the first! Allow me to briefly address some of the questions raised regarding MLS-USA:

Why would Boards or MLSs provide their databases to HomeExposure so they could be put out of business?

  • the intent of MLS-USA is exactly the opposite, to keep them in business by helping to reduce costs and increase services to members! Why should each board reinvent the wheel when we can all work together to keep the Realtor at the center of the transaction?!

    The article mentioned up to 100% savings - why the sliding scale? Is it free or not?

  • basic MLS services will be free, more advanced features such as distributed database software will be additional

    Who will provide the conversion resources?

  • we will handle the historical database conversion

    Who will provide the support resources?

  • we provide toll-free and email support

    Who will provide the training resources?

  • Internet-based MLS systems require much less training than proprietary systems. we will provide initial training and then work with the board's education committee for ongoing training

    It's not free if it requires an ISP to access it.

  • if you are in business today, internet access is a given

    What about interstate commerce rules? What about RESPA?

  • we intend to be compliant with all interstate and regulatory issues

    Who will the advertisers be - non-real estate related vendors?

  • yes

    How will they know who is a licensed agent or not?

  • the real estate board controls the member roster through administrative level access

    Will they allow consumers to put their listings on too?

  • this is an national MLS system for Realtors-only

    Who will acquire and pay for tax/assessor/sales data?

  • the tax/sales data will be transaction based unless a board prefers to pay for bulk acquisition data for their geographic area

    If their is billing involved who will do it?

  • we will bill real estate boards/MLS's directly as per our agreement with them

    Stay tuned and we will be releasing more details regarding MLS-USA over the next few weeks.

    Richard Robarts, B.A.Sc.(Eng.)
    Business Manager
    HOME EXPOSUREŽ
    TEL: 1.888.HOME.416
    FAX: 1.888.HOME.402
    WEB: http://www.homexposure.com
    EMAIL: rrobarts@homexposure.com


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