As many of you may be aware, the DOJ and NAR announced a settlement regarding the NAR’s VOW (Virtual Office Website) rules. As news of this moved throughout the internet, people took sides.

A poster in a forum had written with the settlement that online house shopping would become easier. I replied that house shopping is already easy due to the IDX system which MOST agents use. The VOW affects very few brokerages. In my opinion, it is more of a theoretical victory and not a practical one.

Another poster made a comment

If selling houses is a service business, and not a data business, why isn’t full access given immediately to any person?I’m not getting the glass half full/glass half empty logic.

I responded with

Honestly, if a FSBO wanted to pay the $2,000 joining fee which I pay for my MLS and the $75 a month dues to maintain and access the system, I would be fine with that. I think you will find that most people don’t want to do that.

I remember reading somewhere of one MLS toying with the idea of allowing the public to join and pay the fees. I haven’t heard anything more about it, so I don’t know if it really happened.

I don’t think sellers realize how much it costs to join and participate in the MLS. We as agents can spread that cost over several clients, whereas a seller would have to eat that cost in just one sale of their home.It is much more cost effective for sellers who want to represent themselves just pay a limited representation company and put their information on the MLS.

Also, I don’t know what data you think you want that you don’t have access to. In Oregon sales prices are public records. The information that is private has to do with seller phone numbers, special instructions for showings, sometimes there are lockbox codes on there. Maybe you are okay with putting the lockbox code to your house on a public forum, but as a seller I would not be pleased about that.

What about ALL of that data that we have that no one else does? With the exception of days on the market, information on the MLS is public information. We have tax information, schools, room sizes (blueprints are at the county), and basic amenities (which you can usually discern from the photos). There isn’t any top secret information in the database, it is convenient. Heaven forbid, we agents banded together and made our jobs more efficient and convenient.

Forget what you think you know…the MLS is not some sort of magical database. It COSTS money to run it. Yes, there are people that maintain the servers, input data for some agents, house the office building, etc. There are overhead costs associated with running the MLS. Apparently some people in the public think they should be able to post listings for free.

Honestly, I don’t know people think they are missing. Even if the general public was allowed to post their own listings on the MLS, why would you. It would cost you $2000 +$75 per month. If you want MLS access google “limited representation your town Oregon” and pay the $300 to get on there. Sometimes, I think people get so outraged with a perceived wrong, they don’t really understand that it might not be something they would use.

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