Cross-pollination of resources is one of the many reasons why the Internet turns all marketing rules upside down. Internet marketing is often comprised of strategic partnerships, co-branding, content-sharing, but never before have brokers taken the power of the Internet into their hands to promote general market listings.

The Northwest MLS in Washington allows its membership to publish listings on their Web sites. Because the listings are owned by the brokers, the brokers can enter into cooperative agreements to allow members to post each others' listings, with some caveats. Brokers are not allowed to take another member's data and give it to any other site, including national listings sites.

Pat Grimm, designated broker for Windermere Bellevue Commons and member of the Northwest MLS board of directors believes cross-pollination of listings is a win-win for all concerned. He says, "Lead retention is the name of the game on the Web. The advantage for smaller brokers is that we allow them to publish our listings on their site, so they have more listings to show to visitors. The advantage for us is that we get all the listings to show."

Northwest MLS does not participate in national listings sites. How do customers find the site? How do they know where to look?

Grimm explains, "They find us through other links from search engines, and if they don't know the name of our company, they can key in the area and homes. We also have links all over the place."

What about the smaller brokers? Will they be lost in the shuffle? Some of the smaller brokers do share their listing content with Realtor.com and others, admits Grimm. "The smaller brokers do feel at a disadvantage. If they feel like they need to do that, they can."

"We want agents to be the point of first contact. We want the public to go to the broker sites first," says Grimm. "The consumer can get everything they want on the broker sites."

"I think you will see this is a trend that is already happening," says Grimm. "People are looking at what is happening with the data and realizing that they may be losing control of the prospects to for-profit organizations that aren't broker-controlled. I think most of the national sites will say that is not our intention, but if they control the eyes of the consumers, they can control what they charge to be on the site. I don't believe that we should allow that to happen. We control the data now and we should cooperate amongst ourselves."

But the brokers who are posting cooperative data aren't necessarily those who refuse to affiliate with national sites. Equity Group Realtors, part of the RMLS in Portland, Oregon is joining a growing list of brokers who are posting cooperative listings on their company Web sites in addition to sharing listings with the national listing sites.

With 13 offices and over 700 associates, Equity Group holds the largest market share in the RMLS, yet, it has agreed to post the listings and photos of competitive participating companies. The goal? Raising the inventory to over 4550 available properties in the Portland/Vancouver area.

"Having a larger inventory keeps visitors at your company site," says Mary King, Marketing Manager. Agents retain leads from all the listings."

To boost the success of cooperative listings, Equity Group agents have access to the Active Agent* web page from Go Home Networks. This service adds value to the Buyers Agent, who generally can't use the web to business because the contact agent is the listing agent. Active Agents use their URL to track leads from other web pages and adds their contact information on every listing including other company listings. "Active Agents have an advantage because to the Buyer it appears that the agent has an inventory of every listings available."

Equity Group is the only office in Oregon where the agents have access to this technology. The large inventory and lead retention is surely to revolutionize the way agents market themselves on the on the Internet.

Mary King, marketing manager and technology director, says "The goal is to provide a more consumer friendly site, in which they can see the entire inventory. The public wants the information and you have to provide it. You can't have the mentality that if you give them everything, they won't need Realtors anymore. It is actually a benefit for both the consumer and the agent because it cuts down the buying time."

"We advertise everywhere," explains King. "HomeAdvisor.com allows us to have a free link between the listings and our site. Realtor.com does the same for a fee. They will give you their own Web page that you can link to, but the leads aren't given back to you for free. That is just the way it is. They have different revenue models, but you have to be on both sites. Banner ads or you pay - you just make that choice."

"In our area, the large brokers want to share listings, but the smaller brokers are fighting it," she says. "If you have a small 25-man office and you can offer your buyers a site with everyone's listings on it, we're not sure why the brokers wouldn't want that."

The RMLS assists the cooperating brokers. Brokers or their authorized Webmasters forward their cooperative agreement to the MLS and then they upload the listings.

King warns that there may be liability issues concerning what agents can add to the listings. As with flyers, data should exclude certain information to the public. Another issue that may receive more press in the near future is holding sold homes after closing, a fair housing violation. Many MLSs already fine for this infraction, and the industry is watching for the outcome in a New Mexico case in which an Atlanta broker was advertising a sold home.

Adding other agent's homes increases this liability for agents and brokers. "We are trying to make sure that we have our words right on our stuff. You just have to try to do a good job on those Web sites," says King."It will be a policing issue."

Published: April 13, 1999

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