Lets get serious about Online Listings:

A new listing is the biggest news in the real estate industry. Solds, contract pendings, price reductions and other updates closely follow. So why don't we treat listings with the importance they deserve?

Many listings never see the light of the Internet for weeks, and for that there is no excuse. There is no reason why the real estate industry should lag behind other industries in getting timely information to the Internet.

There are too many other examples of other industries that are doing it right.

You can go to eBay, and put your golf clubs up for sale, and get a response within minutes.

You can check the progress of your favorite stock with real-time quotes, which change every few seconds.

You can read breaking news where somebody writes a story and posts it instantly to the Internet. We do it everyday here at Realty Times, with our eyes closed. We have a team of over 25 writers across the continent. We post at least 10 new stories a day - some of which are breaking news. When we have a breaking news story, we can write it and post it within minutes, as well as fire it off to all the major portals as well as hundreds of other sites.

If news were handled like listings, how much would you enjoy reading Realty Times? Would you still like us if all our stories were a month old?

With some listings taking as long as a month to reach the national listings sites, what the heck is going on? You can post your listing on Owners.com, a FSBO site, and get same-day postings. That's right. The FSBO industry is ahead of us. Get the picture?

I think this is an embarrassment to the industry. So much so, that I have instructed our staff to track down and expose the laggards and culprits who are hindering this information. We would love to hear from our readers on this issue.

Timely online listings should be a priority for everyone.