As The NAR's Internet Marketing Workgroup shows its virtual office Website (VOW) regulations recommendations to leadership in preparation for member comments before the Board votes on them at the May meeting in Washington, D.C., a broker has a solution for consumer-friendly data sharing that is simple - make it easy for agents of the broker to register clients to see the data.

Among those watching what the NAR vote will be is David Faudman, broker, Realtor and founder/CEO of CleanOffer LLC. His company neatly sidesteps the VOW issue by selling subscriptions to brokers and agents who want to allow their clients to view the freshest MLS listings straight from the association, without implementing costly VOW solutions of their own.

CleanOffer is a service for agents to subscribe to that allows them to register their clients to view MLS listings. Only clients who have agreed to a committed relationship with the agent get to view listings, unlike the more relaxed user agreements on most VOWs. While VOW agreements don’t stand up as legal contracts, they are effective in getting the clients to behave as clients, says Faudman.

Faudman hopes that the NAR will come up with a policy that is friendly to all members, not just brokers.

”Residential real estate is a local business driven by the local real estate agent,” Faudman wrote to the workgroup recently. “ As independent contractors, the huge majority of agents see themselves as a “one-person business”. Whether working for a large firm, a “mom-and-pop” or alone, it is the individual agent who earns each and every commission and pays most of their expenses including advertising, MLS fees, etc. Clearly the large brokerages serve an important role. However, it is most essential that we consider how policies affect the individual agent. Any MLS policy must keep the playing field level for all agents whether they work for a Coldwell Banker, a Ziprealty or a “Bob’s Realty”.

Why the impassioned plea for salespersons?

”This business model reflects the way real estate agents really work,” explains Faudman.

Faudman’s idea is so simple, one wonders why MLSs haven’t adopted their own agent-sponsored client access.

”They (MLSs) look at somebody to be their information service provider,” supposes Faudman, “and the information service providers aren’t very sophisticated. Why haven’t they said, ‘We will provide this to your members as an additional revenue source for you,’ but they didn’t? They were very focused instead on the competitive nature of being bigger.”

Is Faudman afraid that every MLS might take his idea? “I never could figure out why MLSs aren't doing this,” he says, “but we do have a patent filed on various parts of process. If somebody were to copy it, they couldn’t do it the way we are doing it."

When we talked to Faudman last year, he was just getting his company going with an agreement with BAREIS MLS, an approximately 6000-member MLS in the Bay Area, with over 500 agent and broker subscribers and about 2,200 registered clients of the MLS members. He says since then business is up at least 50 percent, and he is looking to sign a contract shortly with another large San Francisco area MLS.

"We've had a lot of people ask when we are going to be in their market, but we have to customize it to each market," says Faudman.

He sees his product as one solution, but not the only one, to the VOW controversy.

"The biggest problem with VOWs is nobody understands what they are," says Faudman. "They are defining them as online brokerage, but they aren't. The controversy is agents don't want to share their listings to generate leads for other companies. What we're doing is using MLS data is to help sell properties to clients. We're not a lead generator. We are a tool for agents - to help agents with their existing clients. VOWs should be online brokerage that is similar to offline brokerage where you have some relationship with the client. Selling leads is not online brokerage - that's online advertising."

He says, "It is the National Association of Realtors, not the National Association of home buyers and sellers. The whole goal is to keep agents as the center of the transaction so they can get paid. That being the case, consumers want what they want, they don't trust their agents, so the agents are giving them what they want to get a more committed relationship. What we've done is said the client wants full serach access to MLS, but the agent wants a committed client, so give them access in exchange for commitment to loyalty."

While online user agreements don't hold up as contracts, Faudman's says his is so "crystal clear" that the agent is giving them access to the MLS and that the client has to accept that the access is because of a committed relationship, that Clean Offer helps the agents know where they stand with clients.

"It isn't a buyer broker agreement," allows Faudman, but we have had 4000 clients make a commitment, and the clients take it very seriously, and the agent now knows where they stand with the client. At least I know you aren't sneaking off. If you want out of your agreement with your agent, then we know what is going on and we tell the agent. The major difference is that agents are doing more closed escrows because their clients are screening homes. Lookie-loos won't accept the form, so the people using it are highly motivated."

"The bottom line is a brokerage's job should be to give agents more tools to help them sell more homes," says Faudman. "I've always believed that because an agent is an independent contractor it is the agent who matters. Agents care about whether they close a deal. No brokerage does that much for you in terms of helping you make sales. The agent brings sales to the broker, so we appeal to agents."

Published: March 17, 2003

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.