Online listings for buyers to browse is the biggest change to hit the real estate industry this decade. Yet, when buyers seek homes online from the major listings sites, they encounter far too many inconsistencies - listings without photos, outdated listings and new listings not yet available. What's the story? Why doesn't the real estate industry have its act together yet? There are a lot of delays that keep listings from being timely. Theoretically, real estate licensees are supposed to post their listings to their MLS organizations within 24 hours of getting the listing agreement signed. After that, the MLS is supposed to post the listing data to national listing partners the same day. Therefore, new listings should be online for buyers within 24-48 hours. The trouble is, they aren't. Between the agent, the MLS and the national listing partners, there is a lot of room for error, and new or updated listings can be delayed by weeks. Let's look at some of the bog-downs: The licensee/broker Many agents do not have the time or patience to input listings. Others don't have the capability or the right to input listings - that is the domain of the broker. Depending on the office, either the agent, office or broker is not posting the information to the MLS on a timely basis. The MLS Many MLSs are still working off books, and hold their new listings to give to the book vendor and the national sites at the same time. While it saves steps for the MLS employees, these "batches" can delay online postings by a week or longer depending on when the agent got the listing to the MLS. Some MLSs are simply overwhelmed by technology, and do not have the staff available or the resources to efficiently post listings to national listing partners. Others simply don't consider it a priority, and post listings only when they "get around to it." Photos are another cause of delays. Some MLSs simply don't have the technology to accept digital photos provided by agents. Other MLSs prefer the uniformity and professionalism of having MLS-designated photographers to capture images of the homes. The problem is, the photographers have to be dispatched when they are available, then they must process the photos, and then the MLS must match the proper photos to the right homes. The national listing sites Naturally, the national listings sites would like to have the most timely, updated data possible. That is only a priority for HomeSeekers.com, HomeAdvisor and CyberHomes, each of whom offer daily postings. Realtor.com still updates listings weekly, or less often. According to Russ Bergeron with Southern California MLS, HomeSeekers, CyberHomes and Realtor.com provide the quickest updates in descending order. "HomeSeekers updates our system everyday, including Saturdays and Sundays. They are the only ones who update daily. CyberHomes is daily, but they don't do it on weekends. Realtor.com lags behind in photos. We "FTP" (file transfer protocol) our files daily, yet Realtor.com is often four and five weeks behind in posting photos." It doesn't really matter what the reasons are - the combined delays simply make the real estate industry look inconsistant, and that's bad. Buyers and sellers have little comprehension or caring where the bottlenecks occur. They won't understand why some homes have photos and others don't. They won't understand why the home where they saw a sign in the yard isn't listed in their favorite home search site, or if listed, is missing a photo. According to the NAR, three out of four buyers are turning to the Internet to look for homes and other home buying services. Isn't it time we give them what they want - the latest information on homes in their search area? And if not, what's holding us back?