The National Broker Public Portal announced appointment of its initial board of managers this week. In the press release they state that the project is designed to fill “an unmet need in the online marketplace.” Unfortunately, don’t define what that need is, leaving many readers still scratching their heads wondering “Wha??” Have these folks divined a gaping hole in the Zillow/Trulia product strategy and set about to fill the vacuum before anyone else sees it? With hundreds of listing portals and tens of thousands
of agent and broker IDX sites, how could there possibly be any “unmet need” remaining anywhere? We shall see what that means.
In their earlier information releases, the group described the project as “the Creation of a National MLS Consumer Facing Property Search website.” Apparently it evolved to a Broker website in the past 30 days which is most interesting given that it is to be funded by MLS dues to the tune of somewhere between $1 and $3 per MLS subscriber per month.
The funding basis was made possible by a redefinition by NAR some time ago of what Basic Services are in MLS land. Basic Services now includes public facing MLS websites which can be supported by dues paid by ALL MLS subscribers even though they may compete with SOME subscribers and their brokerages. Interestingly enough, the larger brokerages and franchises fought this change heartily. In May, 2013, The Realty Alliance wrote a letter to the MLS Policy Committee stating, “… since we are not in favor of MLSs establishing public-facing listings display websites, we certainly do not favor leaving only the words, “establish or maintain” in the authorization to use our dues/fees/reserves as it is too wide an authorization. Significant dollars of ours could be spent “maintaining” these sites, including marketing and promoting these in competition with broker IDX sites.”
Bob Moline, President and COO of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and the first name on the announced list of newly elected managers of the Portal, wrote at the same time:
We have no doubt, based on proposals and communications of others of which you are, no doubt, aware, that some want to use the fees and dues collected by MLSs and Associations to actively market public-facing sites. Such expenditures–and the public facing websites themselves–would put MLSs and Associations in competition with many of their broker-members, specifically their larger broker-members.
Therefore, we strongly suggest that the proposed new language on advertising specifically exclude the use of MLS of Association dues or fees to market public-facing website. (emphasis added)
Yet, that’s exactly what happened. Despite the protestations, the NAR Board of Directors approved the MLS committee’s proposed rules change and included MLS public facing sites in the definition of Basic Services. Now the Realty Alliance and other major brokers are backing the biggest implementation so far of the new policy.
Please don’t misunderstand — I am not accusing any of the major brokers of doing a flip-flop on this issue. It actually makes great sense for the brokers and major franchisers to back such a move, even though they opposed the rule change that made it possible. From their astute perspective, it is easier to manage one national MLS portal than 600-800 small ones. By imposing the Fair Display Guidelines (see below) from the top down, they need not fight the multiple skirmishes that would surely arise from a bottom up approach.
Much conjecture and critique has been levied at the project and it’s not even off the drawing boards yet. But in all that’s been written about the Broker Public Portal, one question has not been asked that I think needs to be addressed before it goes further.
One of the core tenets of the project is the adoption of the Fair Display Guidelines that the Realty Alliance developed back in 2012-13. Guideline number four states, “ No Ads For Other Brokerages Or Agents Displayed On Or With A Brokerage’s Listing” and goes on to explain:
Only the actual listing broker and agent may be displayed on the property details page. No ads from companies that may compete with a broker’s affiliated business such as mortgage, title, or escrow companies will be displayed on an individual property listing page.
So only the listing agent and brokerage will appear on property detail pages. Buyers’ agents, who by definition do not have any listings, will not be given any exposure at the “point of purchase” – the moment when a potential buyer has a question but perhaps doesn’t want to ask it of the legal fiduciary of the seller for fear of disclosing something about his/her negotiating position. Those buyers agents are members of the same MLS that is supporting the Portal; they are paying the same dues as the listing agents; and $1 to 3 of their dues payments each month are going to fund this portal project. Yet they get nothing in return? How is it that no buyers’ agents have asked the magic question, “What’s in it for me?”
If the average MLS subscription fee is around $25 to $28/month, then somewhere between 4% and 10.7% of the gross revenues of the MLS are going to pay for a Portal that benefits only the small minority of agents who actually take listing contracts. That seems grossly and unfairly lopsided. I’m surprised someone hasn’t challenged that model yet.
~bb
This post also appears on Procuring Cause blog.
