This issue was at the heart of the DOJ lawsuit. Former VOW policy allowed brokers to withhold some or all of their listings from other broker’s VOWs. No more. Now the only Opt Outs allowed are for sellers who wish to withhold their listing or property address from display on the Internet and who have executed a Seller Opt Out. The seller also has a right to request that a VOW’s comments, blogs or automated market value estimate about its listing be disabled or discontinued (although the VOW can state that those features have been disabled) “at the request of the seller.”
The 2005 suit, filed in federal court in Chicago, challenged Realtor rules that allowed brokers to block their listings of homes for sale from being displayed on the Web sites of other brokers that offer discounted commissions or flat-rate fees. Under the settlement, the Realtors agreed to adopt new rules that don’t discriminate against online brokers. The settlement says online brokers should be allowed to provide the same information via the Internet that conventional brokers offer to people who walk into their offices.
NAR has found itself to be in the sights of several federal agencies for some time ‘ Oxley has been asking questions, but the real worry has been the Department of Justice, which has been investigating the apparent control that the NAR and the many local Multiple Listing Services have over real estate sales, particularly online. DOJ has also tussled with several states over proposed or existing legislation to require a minimum level of service from agents ‘ a slap at limited service real estate agents which, we suppose NAR doesn’t object to – and to restrict so-called affinity fees paid by agents for referrals from non-agents.
The original way for agents to display MLS information on line was the Internet Data Exchange system (IDX), which permitted an MLS member to post listing information and photos online and share listings with other agents who could also display those listings on their sites. If an agent did not wish to allow another agent to post her listings on line that was fine, but IDX was reciprocal and the agent who did not share her listings could not share in the listings of others. An IDX was simply an ad, a device to attract buyers and encourage them to call in on listings. IDX soon evolved into what NAR called Virtual Office Websites or VOWs. VOWs usually required customers to sign in with personal information in order to view listings and some agents took it a step farther, requiring even casual Internet surfers to agree to buyer contracts.
MLS listings have always been available to all its member agents but are controlled by the agent who took the listing. While agents agree to cooperate with other agents in selling a property, they do not necessarily agree to have their listings become part of a competitor’s website and lots of agents were unhappy. Therefore NAR created an ‘opt out’ policy, which gave agents the right to refuse to allow their listings to be carried on some or all competitors’ websites.
