You may have read or seen the recent press release from ForSaleByOwner.com
claiming to have reached an agreement for their customers listings to appear
on REALTOR.com. To clarify this issue, the National Association of
REALTORS® has posted the following information on their website Realtor.org.
Daily Real Estate News | November 13, 2008 |
NAR: ForSaleByOwner.com Statement Misleading
A press release distributed Nov. 12 by ForSaleByOwner.com erroneously and
misleadingly claims that REALTOR.com is allowing FSBOs to be posted on its
site. That claim is false. REALTOR.com and the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
REALTORS® have asked ForSaleByOwner.com to retract its incorrect press
release immediately.
There is no formal partnership between ForSaleByOwner.com and REALTOR.com.
REALTOR.com is the official consumer Web site of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
REALTORS® and is operated by Move Inc.
No FSBO Listings on REALTOR.com
REALTOR.com only includes listings from multiple listing services (MLSs),
which are cooperative listing databases maintained by and for brokers who
are in the business of helping consumers buy and sell real estate. There are
no "for-sale-by-owner" homes on REALTOR.com, nor would they qualify to be
submitted to a REALTOR-owned and operated MLS.
MLSs, as participating data content providers to REALTOR.com, decide which
of the listings in the MLS they will distribute to REALTOR.com.
Because no property can be listed on REALTOR.com without first being listed
in an MLS, and since all properties in the MLS are listed by a broker, every
listing on REALTOR.com is listed by a licensed broker. That would apply to
properties supplied by ForSaleByOwner.com to licensed brokers who enter the
listings on an MLS. In a case such as this, the ForSaleByOwner.com listing
is not a "for sale by owner" listing but a broker-represented listing.
Erroneous Connection to Pending Lawsuit Settlement
In its Nov. 12 press release, ForSaleByOwner.com refers to a settlement
agreement pending between NAR and the U.S. Department of Justice on the
display of listings on brokers' Web sites.
"The DOJ-NAR settlement benefited consumers by giving them access to
Realtor.com without the expensive cost of a commission fee," says Greg
Healy, vice president of opreations at ForSaleByOwner.com.
In fact, there is no provision in that pending settlement agreement that
allows unlisted properties, such as "for-sale-by-owner," to be posted on
REALTOR.com. The settlement agreement, when final, would not allow "new
direct access to REALTOR.com," as the statement incorrectly claims.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.