One of the largest MLS services in the U.S., MRIS, has rolled out its IDX solution, MRIS Bridge™, and will have a RETS-enabled direct data feed available to brokers who want raw MLS data by October, says Donnet Yatsko, spokesperson for the for-profit MLS service.

"MRIS Bridge is a property search engine that can be embedded directly into an existing web site," explains Yatsko. "MRIS Bridge uses a company's existing web site format, menus, and navigation while offering site visitors access to up-to-the minute listing data directly from the MRIS database."

MRIS Bridge is a broker-to-broker net advertising solution which allows brokers an easy and effective way to enhance their public web sites with listing content by displaying the listings of other brokers who choose to participate in Broker-to-Broker Net Advertising.

According to Yatsko, MRIS has an opt-out solution, meaning that brokers who do not want to have their listings on other brokers' Web sites must "opt-out" of the program. "I've talked to MLSs across the country and about 90 percent of them are doing it this way," says Yatsko.

She says MRIS Bridge has been successful with about 30 brokers ordering the service to date, and she says that they have only had about three or four brokers who have opted out.

But one broker isn't so sure. She says the reason more haven't opted out is because there's a Catch-22.

"If you opt in, you lose control of your listing data, and if you opt out, how do you tell your sellers that having their listings on other brokers' Web sites isn't good for them?" says Rose Crowley, president-elect of the Southern Maryland Association of Realtors.

Crowley says that she is in a dilemma. As a Realtor organization executive, she says she knows that her organization could not provide the same services as MRIS. "They are able to provide technology solutions cheaper than individual associations," she says, "and that's good for our members."

But as a RE/MAX broker, she says that the for-profit MRIS has a pricing structure that would cause her to pay more for MRIS Bridge than a multi-office broker pays.

"A large company like Long and Foster pays about $.35 per agent per month and the vast majority are smaller brokerage firms, so if you have a small brokerage you are paying nearly $10 per agent, and that's a lot more per agent."

"Two months ago, I started to scream bloody murder," recalls Crowley. "They feel that the brokers are going to buy it whether they have 15 offices or not. It is very unfair. They have the agency's name listed as opposed to the individual listing agent's name, that is creating problems for RE/MAX brokers in that all of them get leads directly, and the larger companies are getting the leads at a corporate level and are quite likely selling the leads to their agents for a fee."

Yatsko says that MRIS heard smaller brokers' complaints and created a pricing scale to accommodate the smaller brokers. Depending on their size, brokers pay between $100 and $350 a month for MRIS Bridge.

"Only the large brokers can afford the raw listings data," says Crowley, "and that gives them some special advantages in the market."

"In Maryland, it is illegal to advertise another broker's listing without their express permission," she explains. "Brokers can get around that by posting a buyer's agency form which the buyer can fill out before looking at the listings."

She says that some brokers have already eliminated the buyer agency agreements from their sites, as they don't want to slow down buyers who are looking for homes. Eliminating the buyer's agency agreement now makes it a questionable site, says Crowley, in terms of legalities.

"Once MRIS sells the raw data, they have no control over what happens to it," says Crowley. "They don't know if a broker is breaking the law or not."

Yatsko says that MRIS sent out a letter in August that said that the opt out option covers Maryland law.

"The bridge sites were live in May, but it's my understanding through David Charron, CEO of MRIS, that some RETS sites are up and running," claims Crowley.

Lead generation is the whole point of Broker Reciprocity, says Yatsko. "Why wouldn't a broker want the lead generation that comes with MRIS Bridge?" she says.

"Broker Reciprocity is advertising," counters Crowley, "and the NAR and its state organizations must step up to the plate and watch over broker reciprocity solutions to insure that brokers don't misappropriate listing information."

She says that third parties don't have the same incentives, they are more interested in making money off of members.

"Our association doesn't make money," continues Crowley. "When MRIS came along, the Realtor associations contributed the seed money. Now it has turned into a giant conglomerate, and many of our members had the foresight to realize that we were going to lose control of our data. Now with IDX, MRIS takes the data that we pay them to post, and is now selling that same data back to us."

"Our association pays MRIS collectively over $500,000 a year to post our data," says Crowley.

"When all associations had their own MLSs, they had more control over the data. We have to share the data, and now it is gone to MRIS selling the data to other sources and to other Realtors and then they appear on the Web sites with addresses and everything," says Crowley. "The problem is that three out of four Maryland brokers probably don't even understand how much listing data is out there. They have no idea that the directions to the home are on the Internet, and that people are stopping at their sellers' homes. This creates liability for the broker and the seller."

Yatsko maintains that MRIS has an opt-out field where brokers can eliminate the addresses from appearing on Bridge sites, and on Homesdatabase.com, the MRIS's public Web site.

"It's all semantics," says Crowley. "For decades we have used the data to generate leads, now the data is all out there and it is generating leads for other Web sites and brokers, and many of us are getting our leads sold back to us."

"Very soon, MRIS will present me with a reciprocity agreement and I'm going to have a big dilemma, but once I have the agreement in hand, I have to decide what is in the best interest of my seller. Obviously, I'm going to allow my data to be released, and I'm trapped into buying this program to remain on a level field. If I say no, I'm violating my agency agreement with my client."

"It's a Catch-22."

Published: September 25, 2001

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