Should MLS Brokers Be Allowed To Blog About Other MLS Broker's Listings?

New RET contributor, Edde Anderson, of CF Anderson & Co., jumps into the Tomato Patch in controversial form.  Edde and I were talking about the topic of this post the other day, and figured it would make for great blog fodder this weekend.  Enjoy, and thanks Edde!

Should MLS Brokers Be Allowed To Blog About Other MLS Broker's Listings?
By Edde Anderson

Wow! Let’s give all give a hand for the question of the year.

A recent article posted by Inman News on June 12, 2007 reported that the controversial discount real estate brokerage Redfin revived its Sweet Digs blogs after having to shut it down due to an MLS rule violation. The rule basically prohibits brokers from advertising other broker’s listings.

So that leads me to heart of the question: Should MLS brokers be allowed to blog about other MLS broker’s listings?  In order to answer the question, we should probably explore the why’s.

Why Would I Want to Blog about the Competition’s Listings?

Say you were a buyer’s agent and you were looking to generate a database of Buyer Only clients. In any normal circumstance, you would go out on tour, preview the homes and then return to the office to call or email all of your clients and let them know what you saw that day.  It should be reasonably assumed that you would give your clients a professional and honest opinion of the homes. Especially concerning the conditions and how well they are priced. Right?

So why not provide your clients a service on your site that basically does the same thing. Your clients would love it. Blogging about properties would bring value to you as an agent by providing up-to-date rich content on exactly what your clients are looking for… A home.

From a consumer point of view, I have to admit that I would be all over that. If my Realtor fed me up-to-date information about homes on the market in my area, with a touch of professional opinion, I would be their client for life.

Would Blogging About the Competitions’ Listings be a Conflict of Interest?

Potentially… Seeing as I am not an attorney, I could not say legally, however, if you are a listing agent trying to promote your own listings and decided to blog about the neighbor’s house down the street, which is listed with another broker and all you blog about are the negative attributes of the home, it might be considered a little biased. It might even be slanderous, defamatory, or just plain unethical.

So unless you can keep it completely unbiased, it may not be worth your time as an agent if your niche is primarily listing properties.

After perusing Redfin’s Sweet Digs sites for San Francisco and Seattle, all I noticed were open houses, neighborhood reviews, price reductions or Redfin’s “most clicked on properties”. I did not see anything that struck me as overly defamatory or slanderous about the homes. Then again, I am not the home owner. Admittedly I did not go much further than the first pages. From what I understand, the reviews were much more “insightful” before they shut the site down the first time.

As real estate and technology professionals, I would love to here your comments and opinions on this topic.

Related Must Reads:
Blogging Your Listings
13 Ways To Post Your Listings For Free

Edde Anderson is an exceptionally professional Realtor in El Dorado County, CA. 
Edde’s Website: www.CFACO.com
Edde’s Blogsite: www.RealEstateTrekker.com
Phone: (530) 644-2687

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Tags: redfin, blogging+listings

Comments

[Mary]

This is a great topic- I was wondering about it myself. I was out showing houses today and we came upon this 1940s colonial that was the most eclectic old home I've ever seen. From one of the bedrooms that was turned into a walk-in closet with all the clothes sorted and in color order- by the rainbow - to the lepord-skinned bar in the basement with lots of uniqueness in- between. This house was OUT THERE- but fun to visit. It was a great house for the right buyers. There is a house for everyone- so saying something negative about any listing is poor business to begin with. You just never know what people are going to like- for whatever reason!

I never understood why a listing agent would walk away from free marketing. Every agent I ever asked - has allowed me- in fact welcomed me -to put their listing on my website. Anything to get it out there, especially in this market.

If you put in a disclaimer that it's not your listing but something you came across in your previews. Is it that much different from emailing someone that listing with your comments about what you think about the place. Blogs are not paid-for ads, but opinions from industry "experts"

I think blogging has blown the whole-NAR-anti-trust policy to crap. They need to go back to the drawing board on this one. But I hate to think that they are going to start applying rules to blogging. This is going to lead to a "blogging product" with canned articles. I shutter to even think of such a thing!

Most listing agents in Virginia don't like to be dual agents so they are not going to sell their listing- why not let the buyer's agent talk about it? It just might get the place sold faster!

My view is that it's the client that should decide who gets to see the listing- afterall- it's their house. But that thought does not get very far with establiished brokers or listing agents.

[Edde Anderson]

Hi Mary,

What inspired me to pursue this topic to begin with was the fact that the MLS in Seattle fined Redfin $50,000 and threatened to shut down their access.

Does that rule seem very fair to you? I live in the California Gold County and periodically there are some really cool homes that come up for sale that I would like to blog about.

About a day or two before I wrote this post, I previewed and older Victorian style home build around 1900 that had been remodeled beautifully. I called the listing agent and asked if I could blog about it. I even sent over a copy of the post. This particular agent worked for one of the larger franchise brokerages in our area and the response I got was "our brokerage has a rule that will not allow outside agents to advertise our listings".

You would think that they would even if they had the chance to approve the post. Does that seem like they are acting in the best interest of the seller to you?

"My view is that it's the client that should decide who gets to see the listing- afterall- it's their house." Amen sister!

[Jennifer Steck]

I wrote an article about nine houses on Franklin Street in Denver. If you want to talk about a conflict, one of the houses on the market is mine. I previewed all of them and listed my favorite thing about each property. I was open about my potential bias and informed the reader which company had each house listed. I figured with full disclosure, I was probably okay. Most of the houses were amazing and I selected my top three favorites. I liked the article and plan to do more. One of the other brokers thanked me for the overview. (Hers was one of the other top three.)I would be upset, however, if another broker was representing my listings as belonging to them. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[Sparky]

What's the difference between blogging to our readers with feedback about some homes we've previewed, or giving Listing Agents feedback after a showing. And why does this have to be viewed only in a negative light? What if the home is an absolute KNOCK-OUT? Wouldn't the Sellers and Listing Agent love the added positive exposure and promotion?

[Marc Vitorillo]

I don't see anything wrong with blogging about another home, especially if you disclose if it's another agent's listing. Even on my company's website, we place not one, but two areas where we disclose co-operating Broker reciprocity.

One of the issues I am having right now is Craigslist. Just happened last night, Seller informed me that my ad on Craigslist was copied word for word by another agent. It is the cheapest unit for a newly completed condo residence and he thought he can get "buyers" from the ad. Normally, I wouldn't make a big deal about it, since he is advertising my own listing for my Seller's best interest. The areas of concern? 1) I had just listed it on Craigslist before and he essentially blocked my ad by re-posting 2) He did not disclose that he is an agent.

Craigslist is a great site, but has way many posts that violate NAR policy.

[Miriam Bernstein]

Personally I don't believe that other agents should blog about another agents listing. Listing agents are hire to market properties and the exposure to the public should be theirs. The only reason that an agent previewed a house to begin with was because of the owner's choice to share the listing on the MLS. Discussions about how to market, where to market, etc are part of the reason to list. If I were an owner I would not want any and all brokers/agents to put their two cents in. Those agents can have discussions with their own clients who care what they have to say. I also as an owner would't want the liability of an agent misstating or having opinions that are incorrect about factual about the property. Really a very bad idea.

[ElizabethWeintraub]

I'm reminded of a Dorothy Parker-ism: "If you can't say anything nice, come over here and sit by me." But I can also hear my mother words echoing: "If you can't say anything nice, don't ever write it down for the whole world to read." Because written words rarely go away.

The problem I see with blogging about another agent's listing is anything one lays out there in public that could be construed in the tiniest little bit as interference or bad-mouthing, might be interpreted as a violation of Articles 15 and 16 of the Realtor Code of Ethics -- interfering with another agent's contractual relationship and bad mouthing the competition.

There's a huge difference between telling a buyer while showing, "I wouldn't let my cat puke inside this monstrosity," to penning those thoughts in a public forum.

And let's face it. Few of us enjoy rhapsodizing about the marvelous aspects of a home as much as we do shredding its image.

[Marty Van Diest]

I have a "deals of the week" category on my site. I used to blog about new listings that appeared to be good deals "on paper". I stopped doing that because I realized that I had to actually see them to know if they were actually a good deal.
I always gave attribution to the listing office. No one complained about this at all.

I still plan to add to the category when I see bonafide deals for which I do not currently have a buyer.

[francine hardaway]

This is a great topic. You aren't going to be able to prevent agents blogging about other agents' listings anymore than you can prevent Trulia or Zillow. If I preview another agent's listing and find something wrong (or right) I have as much right to mention it in my blog as to discuss it with a client over the phone, don't I? If I am not impugning the other realtor, the Code of Ethics doesn't apply, does it? What's going to come out of this is a more efficient market as agents call each other out on inflated prices, neighborhood details that aren't disclosed, etc.

[Joan Snodgrass]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with blogging about another agent's listing. After all, I send listings from MLS via email to clients. This is just one step beyond that, in my never humble opinion.

[Joanne Hanson]

I can see one place it might work well, and I will be contacting Jennifer Steck about it as she just gave me the idea! I am in the mountains of Colorado, an hour from Denver. Our market is a second home market. I could see writing a post about one or two of my listings that would be good second homes, giving an agent in my feeder market the info so she could blog about it and pay her a referral for clients that come from it. It might be hard to control unless you know the ethical standards of the people involved, but it could work! Hmmmm.....

[Rob Beland]

An interesting topic indeed...I see no problem with "discussing" other brokers' listings but I can't say I would want to advertise their listings. I spend enough money advertising my own listings...

I recently decided to do a four part series on office space in my hometown on my blog. I basically broke down the office market into a few sub-markets and wrote a little about each area and even wrote about a few specific properties. I felt I did it in a way that presents some general information to a business owner looking for office space which hopefully will turn into an email to me looking for more information. I didn't mention any listing agents and I don't feel that what I did should be considered "advertising".

I didn't quote lease rates or mention specific office suites that were available. A couple of the properties were properties that my company represents but I didn't even mention that fact.

I guess it's a grey area that will become more of a "hot button" issue as blogging gets more popular.

[Edde Anderson]

Joanne,

That is a killer idea! (Sorry, I am a by-product of the 80's)

I live in a small community in the Sierra's that serves sometimes as a vacation spot for people from the SF Bay Area and Sacramento. It would work well here.

[Rebecca Kuno]

So what's the difference between previewing a property and verbally, or via email, giving feedback to clients vs previewing a property and giving the exact same feedback to clients via your blog?

Would it be more justifiable if you had 50 clients looking at the same property? 100? Where do you draw the line between whats in the best interest of your clients and whats in the best interest of the sellers agents clients?

[Kevin Warmath]

When I first read this post I thought to myself: of course i should be able to blog about another agent's listing. It is my opinion, and I'll stand by it on my blog. We have all sorts of critics and commentators in this country talking/writing/blogging about everything from restaurants, cars, sports teams and politics. Why should houses be any different?

Then I read so of the "anti" comments here and thought, ok, maybe you have a point if i put myself in the seller's shoes.

But upon further thought, and in consideration of francine's comment, I think that public comment/blogging from authoritative sources can only help the market. There is so much junk, misrepresentation and almost fraud in real estate marketing that someone should shine a bright light on it. The consumer will benefit, and frankly the seller will benefit to. There are all sorts of big white elephants in the market but we have no vehicle to call them out...enter the blog.

[Lenny Gurvich]

We "advertise" other agents listings through IDX on our websites everyday. But "blogging" about other agents' listings can certainly set one up for some questions of ethics. And there's just way too much gray area here. "That house sucks. I've shown it and it's overpriced" may be ok to blurt to a client, but publishing it for all to find would be very unethical. "My blog is for my clients" just won't work. How about a password protected "newsletter" where you give your opinion of different new listings. Only "clients" could access your opinions. Would that be OK? Lots of questions to be answered with web 2.0. Never have we had the power to communicate to such a wide audience.

[Teresa Boardman]

I actually do blog about competitors listings on a national level. The post has links to contact information for those agents and I do ask for permission. I know that isn't exactly what you are talking about. I would like to ask what the difference between blogging about another listing and talking about it on Zillow are? Here in MN our associations told us it would be best not to discuss another agents listing.

[Jackie Colson-Miller]

IDX allows us to show other broker's listings. It's important, when doing that, to acknowledge they are not YOUR listing, but from other MLS brokers. As long as you don't mislead the public, the listing agent should enjoy the enhanced exposure and possible sale as a result of the IDx.

[Debbie Cook]

As a Listing Agent - I say, GO FOR IT - You can advertise MY LISTINGS Anytime! I don't understand why any one wouldn't welcome this on their listings - It only helps their sellers and isn't that why they hired us?? to promote their property?

[Sandy]

I think the beef with Sweet Digs is that they failed to get permission to post about other members' listings which is in violation of NWMLS rules. If you include another member's listing on your personal advertising, you have to get written permission according to MLS rules, and about once a year the whole MLS gets a reminder that this is the case. I blog about other agents' listings on occasion, but when I do, I get written permission and stay within the rules.

Of course, if you get permission to blog about it, it is understood you aren't going to bash the listing.

[Paul Francis]

This is a very interesting topic that will be coming up again as more agents get into blogging. I've often wanted to post about a fantastic listing for sale that we've seen but held back - even though I freely welcome anybody to post about one of our listings for sale if they have positive things to say about it. If our best intention is for the consumer, then what is wrong with extra advertising exposure?

[Jennifer Kirby]

Sure, everybody says "Please, advertise my listing and give me more exposure". But what they are really saying is "only if it is good comments". I am pretty sure that if I was to blast an agent and his listing with a bunch of bad comments, he would no longer want me advertising his listing on my blog. And since our society seems to be so fixated on the negative (just look at the news as the front article is always something negative), most of the blog comments out there would be negative. Let's be honest with ourselves folks, the amount of negative posts would FAR out way the amount of positive ones. And all our industry needs is MORE negative publicity.

[Silvia Evans]

Whats going on with real estate agents networking on a site called congoo? You can see the agents here: http://www.congoo.com/Industry/Real-Estate-industry

There was an AP article about this yesterday. Is this the new way to market yourself?

[Galen]

In theory blogging about competitors listings makes sense, but using MLS data or photos definitely crosses the line. At that point you're taking someone else's work and using it for self promotion (send your clients an email if you are only doing it for them).

That said, if the industry won't let people talk about homes that are for sale, people outside the industry will do the talking for them. We talk about everything online, so what makes homes for sale so special?

[Bob S]

I love when our listings are picked up by other blogs or posted or other websites. More blog posts = More visibility = More potential offers

Often times, we post exceptional or unique properties on our blog, http://farsrealtygroup.com/blog