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ryantate
136
WFG News
February 19, 2015

MLSs feud over direct feed to Zillow

Two South Florida Realtor associations with a contentious history are once again battling, this time over a direct listing feed to top real estate portal Zillow. When the Jupiter-Tequesta-Hobe Sound Association of Realtors announced last month that it would be sending its more than 52,000 active residential listings directly to…
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ryantate
152
WFG News
February 17, 2015

Zillow’s campaign for direct MLS feeds is about to get a boost

Zillow will soon be able to make use of what it hopes is a potent weapon in its arsenal to obtain direct feeds from multiple listing services: its chief industry development officer, Errol Samuelson. Samuelson has been on leave since July 1, when a Washington state Superior Court judge granted…
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ryantate
119
WFG News
February 13, 2015

Broker portal project shooting for national prominence out of the gate

A group of multiple listing services, franchisors and brokers has raised most of the seed money it needs to begin to build the first national MLS consumer-facing listing portal, according to a new website for the project launched this week. The initiative, tentatively dubbed the “National Broker Portal Project,” began…
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ryantate
169
WFG News
February 11, 2015

Zillow lands more direct listing feeds

Two Florida multiple listing services have agreed to send top real estate portal Zillow a direct feed of their combined 67,000-plus listings. The deals come as Zillow is scrambling to obtain listings directly from brokers and MLSs before the expiration of its agreement with Move-owned listing syndicator ListHub on April…
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ryantate
220
WFG News
February 10, 2015

Some groups don’t get a say in the great portal debate

How should the industry address listing feeds to ListHub, Zillow, and other multiple listing services and portals? It’s up to brokers — and there are some industry groups who simply don’t get to vote. Jon Coile is the president of Champion Realty, a regional brokerage in Maryland, and the chairman of…
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ryantate
117
WFG News
February 9, 2015

North Carolina MLSs sign data-share deal

Two North Carolina multiple listing services will soon combine their real estate listings into one database accessible to their 11,000 combined members with a single login. The Carolina Multiple Listing Services Inc., a subsidiary of the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association, and the North Carolina Mountains Multiple Listing Services have signed…
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ryantate
186
WFG News
February 9, 2015

How should brokers and MLSs navigate new world of listing distribution?

Real estate listing distribution will change significantly when ListHub and Zillow split in April. Brokers and MLSs are rushing to ensure that their listings remain on the most popular consumer advertising portals. Those brokers and MLSs need to take great caution in their next steps. Moving too quickly could undermine…
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ryantate
168
WFG News
February 6, 2015

Consultant: One-size-fits-all is wrong approach to portal listing feeds

A model agreement hammered out by industry players representing listing portals, MLSs and brokerages in the hopes of standardizing the terms under which listings are provided to big search sites like Zillow, Trulia and realtor.com should be viewed as a floor, not a ceiling, says a prominent real estate industry…
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ryantate
168
WFG News
February 5, 2015

Why I love my MLS

Last week’s Real Estate Connect New York conference got me thinking about technology. I have said for years that my multiple listing service (MLS) is the best example of how to do technology well. My MLS helps level the playing field between big companies and smaller independent organizations — like mine!…
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199
WFG News
February 4, 2015

Unintended consequences of listing regulations

“Follow the drugs and you’ll find the drug dealers, but follow the money and you’ll be surprised where it takes you.“ – HBO’s police drama “The Wire” Regulations governing the access, distribution and display of residential real estate listings changed many industry dynamics over the past 20 years. Traditionally, brokers…
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