A little while back, I was working on getting MLS Listings into an clients website, when I noticed one of the listings had the Realtors info in the description. I thought it was odd because I had been told that was against the rules. On checking with the Real Estate Board that they were a member of, the person first told me that wasn't allowed and they would have to check. After checking, however, they came back and said that the listing in question came from another adjacent county, and a from a member of another board, and that each Board had their own set of rules on how they could put their listings in. Now most folks that have been involved with Real Estate and the MLS systems know that people put listings in, and then share them on each others websites. Most sites, when displaying these listings, try very hard to downplay the listing brokers info and use the page as an add for themselves. This is the main reason that some Realtors engage in the practice of putting their info - name, phone, company - in the description o try to get some exposure for themselves on their own listing.
The issue that I have with this is that, now I display their listings, and they are allowed to prominently display their info in the description on my page, but when they display my listings on their page, I'm not allowed to put my info in the description, effectively allowing them to more easily hide or downplay me as the listing broker. And this is all on the same website. Am I missing something or does that seem like a bit of an inequitable arrangement? For my client, who sits on the border of 3 counties, its especially tough.
Now to be fair to their local Real Estate Board, I tend to agree with them in that I don't think that the agents' info should go in the description. But in the end all the boards sharing this MLS Website need to negotiate common rules that better disallow hiding the listing brokers information.
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