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Twice a year, NAR’s MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board gets together to consider the major issues confronting MLSs, so as to make their meeting — scheduled this year for Aug. 28 and 29 in Chicago — as productive as possible. These discussions will help determine whether the Advisory Board should recommend action to the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee when it meets at the 2017 REALTORS® Conference & Expo this November.
Here’s what the group will be discussing this month:
- The importance of sustainable homeownership and the role of the MLS.
- Possible changes to MLS Policy Statement 7.42 on the jurisdiction of association MLSs: This would allow greater flexibility in service structures for the purpose of encouraging innovation and recognizing different business models. Under the proposed concept, agents would be given the choice to subscribe to any MLS in which their broker is a participant, and MLSs would only be allowed to assess fees based on the number of licensees affiliated with the broker who choose to subscribe to the MLS. Learn more and provide feedback here.
- Determining what, if anything, should be done about “coming soon” marketing: Policies dealing with prelisting and off-MLS marketing practices are being developed all around the country. The advisory board will examine several different examples of local efforts to address “coming soon” listings to determine what, if any, national resources or information should be made available. Please share your local “coming soon” rules and concerns with the advisory board by sending them to MLS@realtors.org.
- Developing more flexible education options: Currently MLS policy only requires remote training opportunities for continuing education. The advisory board will discuss possible changes to embrace new technology as part of qualifying for MLS participation.
- Increasing the number of years of sold data that must be made available: Currently, IDX policy mandates that the past three years of data be made available at a minimum. This change could include a fixed date within the past seven years, after which all sales information maintained by the MLS would be available in IDX data feeds for display at the discretion of MLS participants.
- Increasing the minimum number of results that surface in response to consumers’ online property searches: Current IDX and VOW policies mandate a minimum of one hundred listings or 5 percent of the listings in the MLS (whichever is less); this policy proposes to increase that number to five hundred listings or 50 percent of the listings in MLS (whichever is less).
We’d love to hear what you think about these technology issues and others facing MLSs. Please leave a comment below to join the conversation, or send questions and comments about the topics above to MLS@realtors.org.