Comments on: Revised rules may forbid real estate blogging

By: Weekly Real Estate Buzz in Redmond, Near Microsoft, 10-8-09 « West Redmond Real Estate Buzz

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:44 +0000

[...] There are new NWMLS (Northwest Multiple Listing Service) rules on blogging about listings. No longer can any comments be made regarding any home sales. Since I’ve worked for so many years in the neighborhoods around Microsoft, I’m very familiar with the neighborhoods and homes and it was easy to give my opinions about why a home sold. However, with the new MLS rules, I no longer can comment on other listings. So I’ll keep it short and sweet and report the facts about home sales, which is public information. [...]

By: Can the NWMLS Control Online Conversations About Listings? | Seattle Mortgage Daily

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:47:35 +0000

[...] blog about their listing. For the full official description of the two new listing parameters hit Marlow’s September 25th post for an excerpt from the NWMLS [...]

By: Can the NWMLS Control Online Conversations About Listings? | Seattle Bubble — News & discussion about real estate & the housing bubble in the Seattle area.

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:03:30 +0000

[...] blog about their listing. For the full official description of the two new listing parameters hit Marlow’s September 25th post for an excerpt from the NWMLS [...]

By: Frank LLosa- Arlington Realtor Blogger

Frank LLosa- Arlington Realtor Blogger — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:13:14 +0000

Ok, so they block the AVM’s.

Can you put a big Red Notice saying “SELLER HAS BLOCKED ALL AVMS” and then link to zillow?

Heck the consumer is gonna jump over there anyhow.

I do something similar on my site for blocked blog comments. You block comments, you get a big red notice to call the reviewer directly for voice to voice comments.

Frank

By: Latest Real Estate Buzz in The Kirkland Highlands, 10-1-09 « Kirkland Highlands Real Estate Buzz

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:39:43 +0000

[...] There are new NWMLS (Northwest Multiple Listing Service) rules on blogging about listings. No longer can any comments be made regarding any home sales. Since I live in the Kirkland Highlands and know it so well, in the past I’ve given my opinions about why a home may have sold. With these new rules, I no longer can do this, so I’ll just be reporting the facts, which are considered public information. ________________________________ 7 Town homes on the market 2 price reduction 1 sold $545,000 Original list price of $579,000, final list price of $579,000, sold in 54 days for 8% below the original asking price. [...]

By: Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:41:00 +0000

Ben,
If the seller doesn’t want his listing displayed on Zillow he can tell his agent not to put it on Zillow. But that’s nothing new, and it’s not directly affected by the new NWMLS rule. I suppose you’re right that the new rule might force the conversation to occur more than it otherwise would have. But just to clarify again: the new rule doesn’t specifically affect listings on Zillow.

I still maintain that any seller in the Northwest would be MUCH better off having their listing on Zillow (which I think is the most visited real estate site in the Northwest, though I’m not certain). Remember that if their home is not listed for sale on Zillow, its public facts and the Zestimate will still appear on Zillow. Hence, it’s to their benefit to put the listing onto Zillow so the listing price, the photos, the listing agent’s contact information and marketing text appear on the site.

By: David Losh

David Losh — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:35:44 +0000

When zestimates were higher than list price this didn’t seem to concern the Real Estate industry. It was annoying, but kind of a joke. Now that zestimates show directly the price declines it’s a problem for the Real Estate industry, but it is information that consumers want and will use.
The second part is that, in my opinion, from what I am reading, positive comments about a listing are not the issue, it’s when some one points out flaws or makes negative comments that we need to limit or discourage those.
How will the consumer respond? During these past five years of web 2.0 transparency the NWMLS has promoted web sites and made it’s data more accessable. Now that the Real Estate market has changed they come out to stifle negativity to the industry.

By: Ben K

Ben K — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:56:01 +0000

Are you sure about that, Spencer? It may reduce listings available on Zillow, given this part “link to the listing from the data”. Here, I’m assuming the “data” is the property page on Zillow.com. If an agent takes a listing where the seller has opted-out of AVMs, that agent might not be able to list that property on Zillow with a link back to the listing details on their website.

The rule specifically states “member’s websites” so it doesn’t apply to Zillow.com. However, if a seller is adamantly against AVMs, then the broker may need to drop those listings from its feed to Zillow in order to comply with the rule (linking back to the listing from AVM data) as well as the seller’s wishes. It seems to me that it may have a bearing on what listings appear on Zillow.com.

By: New Rule on Home Blogging & Zillow

New Rule on Home Blogging & Zillow — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:46:45 +0000

[...] Revised rules may forbid real estate blogging by Marlow Harris on 360 degree digest [...]

By: Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:03:33 +0000

To clarify —

This new policy affects IDX sites but does not affect Zillow’s listings directly.

So let me use an example.

Say a Keller Williams agent takes a listing from a seller and that seller opts out of having their listing displayed on sites with AVMs. When RPA takes the NWMLS IDX feed onto RPA.com, RPA will now need to take the Zestimate off of that listing page of the Keller Williams listing. However when Keller Williams sends their listings feed directly to Zillow, that feed will still have the listing in question in it, and it will still appear on Zillow with the Zestimate next to it.

So this policy does affect Zillow in the sense that it will somewhat reduce which listings pages our Zestimate can appear on on OTHER website where we power valuations (e.g., Redfin, RPA.com, and others) but it doesn’t have any bearing on the listings that are on Zillow.com