How to wage a PR war against an MLS

Transcription

1 ( How to wage a PR war against an MLS OahuRE.com claims to have inspired around 1,000 consumers to express disapproval of an MLS enforcement action Teke Wiggin ( Sep 18, 2015 Key Takeaways Some MLSs don't allow brokers to display expired, pending and withdrawn listings on brokerages' virtual office websites (VOWs). Brokerages can rally significant public support for practices promoting transparency by posting calls to action on their websites and Facebook. One reason MLSs may decide to prohibit the display of expired, pending and withdrawn listings on VOWs is to protect the privacy of sellers. Multiple listing services sometimes irritate real estate agents. But a case unfolding in Honolulu serves as a reminder that they can also roil the public.

2 HiCentral MLS, the MLS serving Honolulu, has ordered the brokerage OahuRE.com to pull expired, withdrawn or pending listings from its virtual office website (VOW), threatening to end the firm s 10-year history of providing that information to registered users, according to OahuRE.com broker-owner Bryn Kaufman. If OahuRE.com complies with the HiCentral MLS request, 39,000 people who have registered on the brokerage s website will lose access to that listing data, Kaufman claims. HiCentral MLS, which is owned and governed by the Honolulu Board of Realtors, has told Kaufman he must remove the data because showing it violates a HiCentral MLS rule that the organization says is designed, in part, to protect the privacy of sellers. But the Honolulu Board of Realtors has agreed to review an appeal from Kaufman and re-evaluate the rule in question. Negative publicity may give the board cause to think long and hard when deciding whether to change tack. 1,000 votes Kaufman, who was ranked the No. 1 agent by quantity of transactions ( in Hawaii for 2014 by Hawaii Business, says he has inspired around 1,000 people to express their disapproval of HiCentral MLS request that he remove expired, withdrawn and pending listings, demonstrating the potential for a brokerage to rally significant public support around practices that promote transparency in the real estate market. Information such as pending sales (and) expired and withdrawn listings may be relevant to individuals and families during their homebuying process, one person wrote in an complaint to the Honolulu Board of Realtors. Withholding pertinent information is wrong and dishonest. Shame on you, board of Realtors, trying to keep the public uninformed.

3 Kaufman has told the Honolulu Board of Realtors in an that he plus registered members who enjoy oahure.com with all the listings. The board will review an appeal from Kaufman on Oct. 30. Bryn Kaufman (right) with his wife and children. OahuRE.com s resistance marks the latest effort from within the industry to offer consumers access to more MLS information, coming after a Colorado brokerage s failed bid to publish co-op commission data (// was considering retaining an attorney to represent the interests of the 40,000- (// commission-data-from-listing-site-after-mls- demand/) and the National Association of Realtors decision to enact rules that could encourage the public display of sold listings As the Honolulu Board of Realtors may be pondering whether to uphold its decision to block Kaufman from displaying certain listing data, Kaufman has galvanized hordes of consumers into condemning the board s enforcement action against him. Mobilizing support Originally, Kaufman said he planned to just send an appeal to the Realtor board. Only at a client s urging, he said, did he decide to take more aggressive measures. He kicked off his campaign by posting a call to action on the home page of his website encouraging visitors to the local board of Realtors if you do not want the board of Realtors hiding information from you

4 CLICK TO TWEET ( TEXT=BROKERS+CAN+RALLY+PUBLIC+SUPPORT+FOR+PRACTICES+PROMOTING+TRANSPARENCY.&URL=) Concealing pending, withdrawn and expired listings will prevent the public from learning which listings were overpriced and did not sell, or which listings are closing soon, the notice on his website says. Kaufman said the call to action has generated at least 150 complaints to the board. Brokers can rally public support for practices promoting transparency. ( text=brokers+can+rally+public+support+for+practices+promoti ng+transparency.&url=) Kaufman also paid to boost a Facebook post announcing the Honolulu Board of Realtors action against his brokerage, placing the post in the news feeds of many Facebook users who are part of his target market, along with many of the 39,000 who have registered on his website. The Facebook post included two links: one to his call to action on the brokerage website and another to a separate Web page showcasing examples of complaints ( others had already sent to the board. Kaufman s Facebook post appealing for public support has close to 700 likes and, he said, more than 150 comments, the majority of which express support for Kaufman.

5 OahuRE.com Real Estate 475 Likes September 4 at 2:16pm Edited Like Page The Honolulu Board of Realtors has asked me to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired home listings from I have appealed their request and need your help. If you have ever bought or sold Oahu Real Estate, or plan to do so, you know how important it is to see all listings... See More 1,089 Likes 258 Comments 60 Shares Like Comment Share Kaufman also successfully pitched a reporter at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, resulting in an in-depth article ( featuring a number of comments supportive of Kaufman. Most of the 100 readers or so who commented on the article voiced support for Kaufman, according to Kaufman. Kaufman also said that he plans to blast out an in the next few days to more than 30,000 users who have registered on his website. I expect to get good results from this group, as they have all benefited from seeing all listings on my website, he wrote via . A 10-year practice

6 OahuRE.com began showing expired, withdrawn and pending listings to every visitor to the website in 2005, according to Kaufman. A few years later, he said, he stopped serving up the data to everyone in order to comply with new MLS rules. But Kaufman said OahuRE.com continued to show the data to a qualified pool of consumers: people who registered their contact information on OahuRE.com s main website for access to a restricted section of the website, its virtual office website (VOW). Any broker s VOW may show listing data that brokers are permitted by their local MLS to provide to customers by hand, mail, facsimile, electronic mail or any other methods of delivery, under a 2008 settlement ( between the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the Department of Justice. NAR s MLS policy handbook indicates that MLSs can choose whether to prohibit brokerages from displaying expired, pending or withdrawn listings on virtual office websites (VOWs). In recognition of the fact that MLSs don t allow members to show some types of data to customers through all delivery methods, including by hand, the settlement spelled out which types of data MLSs could prohibit members from showing consumers on VOWs. Those types of data include expired, pending and withdrawn listings. Not every MLS prohibits brokers from showing that data on VOWs, according to NAR. But HiCentral MLS ranks among those that do.

7 NAR also requires that brokers who are signing up registrants for a VOW provide the registrant with a password. OahuRE.com used cookies, though, not a password (a cookie is a small piece of data stored in a user s Web browser to keep track of the user). OahuRE.com s VOW registration page Keeping some data under wraps The Honolulu Board of Realtors has decided not to allow the display of expired, pending and withdrawn listings on VOWs partly out of respect for the privacy of sellers, said Suzanne Young, CEO of the Honolulu Board of Realtors. The way we see it is that the seller has chosen to take their listing off the market, Young said. Kaufman says he wasn t aware that HiCentral MLS prohibited showing such data on VOWs. Now that he is, he questions the policy primarily on two counts. First, he says his brokerage has displayed expired, pending and withdrawn listings in some manner for 10 years. Why only now, he asks, has the Honolulu Board of Realtors asked him to remove the data?

8 Second, all HiCentral MLS members can offer people access to withdrawn, pending and expired listings by providing a link (click here ( to see an example) to a Web page powered by HiCentral MLS. They clearly make this available to everyone, so I believe it is a double standard to ask to remove it from my website, while they clearly have chosen to provide this information to the public, Kaufman said. I believe it is a double standard to ask to remove [data] from my website. Bryn Kaufman, broker-owner, OahuRE.com When asked why HiCentral MLS requested that Kaufman stop displaying expired, withdrawn and pending listings only recently, Young said that the Honolulu Board of Realtors takes enforcement action whenever the organization becomes aware that its rules have been violated. Young added that HiCentral MLS has prohibited expired, withdrawn and pending listing from being displayed on VOWs for the duration that OahuRE.com has been showing that data on its VOW which, according to Kaufman, is seven years. MLS members can send links that bring clients to Web pages showing that data, Young said, but the links deliver clients to a password-protected, member-only MLS website, not Hi Central MLS public-facing site. That means Hi Central MLS rule prohibiting the display of the expired, withdrawn and pending listings on VOWs does not offer HiCentral MLS publicfacing site a competitive advantage over broker websites, she said. When asked why HiCentral MLS permits real estate agents to show expired, withdrawn and pending listings to consumers by providing a link, but not through VOWs, she emphasized that the link-dependent delivery method offers specific information related to a request from a customer in a secure format.

9 She acknowledged, however, that MLSs seem to be required to permit VOWs to provide to customers every type of data that can be shown to customers through all other delivery methods. Our goal is to be in compliance with NAR and what NAR requires that will be a discussion that our board of directors will have, she said. Trudging toward transparency The conflict between Kaufman and his MLS follows other efforts in the industry to further pry open the lid of the MLS for consumers. Trelora, a Denver-based discount brokerage, grabbed headlines in February by overlaying the compensation offered by listing brokers to buyers brokers on its website s listings. Trelora quickly removed the data which NAR advises against displaying publicly at the request of the local MLS. The brokerage had previously said it would find a new path (// to open up information to consumers if it got shut down. NAR also recently pushed through a measure aimed at opening up MLS data to more consumers. In November 2014, NAR instituted a rule (// requiring MLSs to permit brokers to display a minimum of three years of sold listing data on their nonpassword-protected websites but only if the sold data is already publicly available. The rule allows brokers to display sold listings, not just on VOWS but also on public listing search tools that are freely available to anyone and do not require registration.

10 Part of the rationale behind the policy change was to give brokers an advantage over third-party portals that rely on public property tax records to track the dates and prices of home sales records that can lag behind MLS data by weeks or months. Teke Wiggin MLS ( MLS & ASSOCIATIONS ( TECHNOLOGY ( Comments 4 Comments Sort by Top Add a comment... Andrew Flachner San Francisco, California MLSs can be agents' biggest advocates. Too often, however, MLSs get wrapped up in beauracracy, ancient bylaws, protectionism and financial interests. Like Reply 1 Sep 18, :13pm Bryn Kaufman Owner at OahuRE.com Teke, thanks for the fair and honest coverage. I am surprised the Board decided to talk to you. I received a letter via certified mail that said among other things they..cannot and will not respond.. to any media inquiries, because it would breach the confidentiality of their proceedings, therefore it would be a violation against me for them to respond. They need to change the cannot and will not respond to will and did respond LOL. Regarding respect for the privacy of the sellers, that would have a lot more clout if they did not allow that information to be distributed freely to the... See More

11 allow that information to be distributed freely to the... See More Like Reply 1 Sep 18, :27pm Kenneth Jenny You go Bryn. The only thing this industry needs to get back control of is its data from the MLS, not the portals. The MLS has evolved into a monopolisitc, one way data trap for the brokerage industry. At least the consumer now has Direct TV to keep cable honest. What alternative do we have to the MLS? Zero. Thus the behavior. Take it or leave it. I say bye, bye to the MLS. The brokerage industry must collaborate now to get the NAR and the MLS out of the business of real estate once and for all. I say we should march both the NAR and the MLS to the tarpits and let's start over as an industry. It's way, way past the time for that type of much needed change. Like Reply 1 Sep 19, :00pm Jeff LaCroix Washington State University Bravo Bryn...we need to keep pushing the status quo. Like Reply 1 Sep 18, :53pm Facebook Comments Plugin