No Responses to “Redfin: points for trying …” »»

1. ljr
   Comment by ljr | 05/05/07 at 5:33 pm

   “They show Days On Market as well, which isn’t

   right.” is that against mls rules? Ziprealty.com lists that.

2. John A Keith
   Comment by John A Keith | 05/05/07 at 7:55 pm

   You’re right!

   Here is

   Amendment C of the MLSPIN Rules & Regulations:

   Acceptable Data Fields for Public Access

   Websites
   Single Family Fields

   Property Type
   Listing Number
   Town
   County
   Zip

   Code
   List Price
   Type of Single Family
   Style
   Approximate Lot Size
   Approximate

   Acres
   Approximate Gross Living Area
   Garage Capacity
   Garage

   Description
   Basement_Yes/No
   Total Number of Rooms
   Total Bedrooms
   Number of Full

   Baths
   Number of Half Baths
   Total Bathrooms
   Master Bath_Yes/No
   All Room Levels and

   Sizes
   Images and virtual tours

   (Regulations for condo listings and multi-family home

   listings are pretty much the same as this.)

   There is one way around the “Days On Market”

   number – the companies could simply make note of the date when a listing first came on the market

   (meaning, the first day the listing showed up on the daily download) and back into the # of days on

   market, this way.

   Perhaps that’s what they’re doing?

3. TimeForAChange
   Comment by TimeForAChange | 05/05/07 at 9:19 pm

   These silly

   MLS rules are so 1980s. Information wants to be free!

4. John A Keith
   Comment by John A Keith | 05/05/07 at 11:09 pm

   Okay, I realize you can’t

   really see the image, even when you click through. W/E.

5. Carrie S
   Comment by Carrie S | 05/06/07 at 1:31 am

   The days is not

   ‘days on market’ but days on Redfin as you suspected. If you look at the sidebar detail or the

   ‘full page’ view you see that the field that has the number of days in it is titled “On Redfin”.

   Also, Trulia doesn’t require any sort of login to see property addresses, so it seems they

   are crossing the line even more than Redfin.

   @TimeForAChange: I agree. Buyers need to be

   able to have a place to get all the information they need in one place!

6. John A Keith
   Comment by John A Keith | 05/06/07 at 2:40 am

   Well, I don’t see how Redfin can say it’s “Days on Redfin”

   when they’ve only been in Boston two weeks.

   Trulia doesn’t take its listings from MLS,

   they are from a separate source.

   Buyers can get all this information in one place – they

   just need to use an agent who has access to MLS.

7. Boston Real Estate
   Comment by Boston Real Estate | 05/06/07 at 3:43 pm

   Good catch

   john but I do think it is fine. In any case the information needs to be free and open just like

   the NAR lawsuit is fighting for the people!

8. John A Keith
   Comment by John A Keith | 05/06/07 at 3:48 pm

   I

   totally understand what you are all saying, but to be clear – information isn’t free. It costs

   money. I pay to be a member of the local MLS, every month. Because I pay, and others pay, we are

   able to build a database that provides information on all properties for sale in Eastern

   Massachusetts.

   I don’t know if I agree that MLS should be required to open its listings to

   the general public.

   If someone wants to build a new MLS for free, please go ahead and do

   it!

   Also, implied by some is that they have a “right” to this information.

   No, you

   don’t. It’s a proprietary system, paid for by dues.

9. Anonymous
   Comment by Anonymous | 05/06/07 at 7:20 pm

   I’ve only rarely had a problem finding the address

   to a property I’m interested in.. More often than not, the listing carries a “…listing courtesy

   of XYZ, Inc.” tag. One can then browse to the website of XYZ, Inc and look at the ‘Featured

   Listings’ to find the address. This works most of the time, a result of the ‘network effect’ in

   action.

10. Hank
    Comment by Hank | 05/07/07 at 7:44 am

    We don’t need the MLS and we don’t need Realtors, they are

    going the way of buggy whip salesman and travel agents-replaced by the internet.

11. ljr
    Comment by ljr | 05/07/07 at 7:53 am

    I do not think that realtors are going away… but I do think that realtors need to

    adapt.

    Realtors need to understand that the internet has changed things for the buyer. I

    know can look up tax, morgage and sale info on a property. I do 90% of my shopping on the internet

    and my primary use for a buyers broker is to help keep emotions out of negotiations.

    There

    will alway be a need for “full service” brokers because some people do not want to do their own

    legwork.

    I believe people like John will be the realtor of the future. hey are out there,

    honest and willing to provide a service that is needed, whether it is “full service” or not.

12. Hank
    Comment by Hank | 05/08/07 at 4:31 pm

    Charging 30K to sell a 500K property, I don’t think so big guy, time is ripe for a change.

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