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 EXPOSURE®
TEL: 1.888.HOME.416
FAX: 1.888.HOME.402
WEB: http://www.homexposure.com
EMAIL: rrobarts@homexposure.com
Published: May 26, 1999
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
