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MLS stakeholders take on syndication, public sites

Discussions focus on 'The Future of MLS'

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Inman News

SAN FRANCISCO -- Cameron Paine, CEO for Connecticut Multiple Listing Service Inc., a broker-controlled statewide multiple listing service that launched in February 2007, said smaller MLSs are in danger of becoming irrelevant.

And what many MLSs don't seem to understand -- and vendors do understand -- is that "it's all about the data," Paine said. It would be easy for a "very light, snap-on MLS model" to bring together the top brokers in a given market and form a low-cost MLS that could quickly grab market share.

"It's just a matter of time. If you're in a fractured market, it will happen. The larger or statewide (MLSs) have enough of a buffer that they are now providing for the data needs of their brokers, especially their largest brokers," he said, which provides them with some immunity from potential MLS competitors.

Paine, speaking during a "Change or Die: Does the MLS Risk Becoming Irrelevant?" panel at the Real Estate Connect conference last week, also joined in a discussion about the value of public-facing MLS Web sites and data-sharing versus MLS consolidation.

The session was part of a series of panels focusing on the future of MLSs -- a hot topic as the California Association of Realtors is pursuing a statewide MLS data-sharing initiative that could lead to a statewide consolidated MLS, and separate collaborative efforts are forging ties between MLSs up and down the state.

Also, the National Association of Realtors trade group is pursuing a comprehensive nationwide property database that MLSs and their participants could tap into. There are about 70 MLSs in California and 900 nationwide -- most of them are affiliated with local Realtor associations.

Other topics during the sessions included the potential impacts to MLSs of a pending U.S. Department of Justice settlement of an antitrust lawsuit against NAR, and MLSs' adoption of Web 2.0 technologies.

"Data sharing is a step, and it's a good one," Paine said, "but data sharing does not remove the underlying problems" of multiple MLS organizations, staffs and related costs. Brokers have cited multiple sets of membership costs, rules, data fields and enforcement mechanisms as incentive to consolidate MLSs or forge cooperative ventures among separate MLSs.

Paine noted that Connecticut, despite the efforts to consolidate all MLSs in the state, is still home to a county with five competing MLSs, and charged that a market with several local MLSs is not the most cost-effective system for real estate professionals.

David Charron, president and CEO for Washington, D.C.-area Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. (MRIS), the nation's largest MLS with about 60,000 members, said that the MLS is investing in its public-facing MLS site in an effort to provide more traffic to its member brokers' sites.

The ineffectiveness of existing media was a driver for MRIS in revamping its search site, Charron said. "The MLS is the one entity you can manage and control much easier than a third party," he said, adding that "brokers and agents are going to syndicate listings over hell's half-acre."

But creating powerful public-facing MLS search sites can be costly, said Steve Schultz, senior director of product and business development for Yahoo Real Estate. "Do you employ designers, product managers, servers and operations people? There's a lot of cost associated with (public sites), mostly around people and marketing."

Third-party sites can have common goals with brokers, said Sean Black, vice president of sales for Trulia, a real estate search and marketing site. "At the end of the day we all service one person: the seller or buyer of a home. We all have a part to play."

Paine said that public MLS Web sites can benefit both the small and large brokers in a given market by leveling the playing field for all market participants, and he recommends that the sites "should not be a profit model for the MLS" and should be free of advertising.

Bob Hale, president and CEO for the Houston Association of Realtors and a panelist during a "Public-Facing MLS Web Sites" session, has long championed the benefits of public-facing MLS Web sites.

While there is still resistance by some MLSs in building up their public-facing MLS sites -- as some brokers worry that such sites could draw traffic away from their own sites -- Hale said that the stats for public MLS sites tend to speak for themselves. "I think the main thing to do is quit having opinions. Look at the facts," he said.

HAR's public search site, at HAR.com, is "not a destination -- we're a pass-through," he said, noting that the brokers in HAR's market support the Web site. "We generate about 600,000 leads a year (for members) that they don't pay a penny for. We send every single agent and every single broker a monthly report on how many leads they got, how many click-throughs to their Web site, and how many times their listing was viewed.

HAR has also actively distributed its participants' property listings data to a range of third-party sites.

Ben Phillips, vice president of new products and research and managing director for Realogy Franchise Group, the largest real estate franchise company in the nation, said that the value of third-party sites quickly became evident during a presentation by Google officials. "We were seeing 70 percent of traffic to these national (brokerage) sites already coming from Google -- they're already there -- so why shouldn't I put my listings there?"

He added, "I think that it's a benefit to the industry and to those customers that there are sites like Trulia" for consumers to evaluate properties and brokers, and Realogy has completed several data distribution agreements with major property-search sites in the past year.

Charron said that Hale "led the charge in this many years ago (for public MLS sites), and so many of us now are literally throwing 'Hail Marys' " to catch up.

As MLS public Web sites develop, there is the potential for the "consumer side and professional side of the site to meld and merge," and that could have "interesting implications" for MLSs, he said.

Saul Klein, president and CEO for Internet Crusade, an online marketing and support company, and CEO for Point2, which offers online real estate marketing tools, said he believes that MLSs will ultimately integrate Web 2.0 technologies.

"The MLS should be a 'property wiki,' " he said, with information on properties culled from a variety of sources."Over time (the information) can get better and better and better. Some MLSs are starting to get the idea," he said, and that is "a parcel-based idea as opposed to a transaction-based idea."

Real estate professionals, he said, must create a compelling argument for the services they offer, as their role is not simply to be an information provider "because that information is everywhere." Rather, real estate professionals can put information into the context of a consumer's life, he said so that they become "more valuable as that trusted, authoritative source and adviser."

Beverly Faull, general manager and senior vice president for Fidelity National Information Services, said that brokers have increasingly gained control over data aggregated by MLSs. "Twenty years ago the MLSs were very protective of the data and were inflexible in the ways brokers could manage the data. Over time we've seen that change -- the brokers, they own that data. They should be allowed to do with that listing as they choose."

Brokers are taking the reins in making their own decisions about advertising property listings, she noted.

As for the impact of a pending settlement in a federal lawsuit against NAR over the trade group's previously passed restrictions on the sharing and distribution of online property information, Klein said, "I don't think that the proposed settlement, even when finalized, will have any major or even minor impact" on MLSs.

And Paine said, "There are MLSs who are already providing most of the information that the DOJ is (proposing) we need to provide." Connecticut MLS already provides recent sold data to the public, he said. "We have it on our public-facing Web site. I think MLSs that have gone out of their way to protect that kind of data -- they're going to have to figure out a way to get it into the marketplace."

He added that there don't appear to be any negative impacts for MLSs that share this type of data with the public. "We haven't seen any negative effects on the agents or the brokers in our marketplace. It makes us think it's OK to get that data out there."

Senate Approved Housing Rescue Package, Real Estate Industry Reacts

RIS Media 

The Senate cleared a massive housing bill on Saturday designed to prop up the struggling U.S. housing market and put in place a U.S. backstop for giant mortgage-buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Senate lawmakers approved the bill, which contains billions of dollars in loan guarantees, a tax break for first-time home buyers and many other provisions, by a vote of 72-13.

The bill now will go to President Bush, who has indicated he will sign it despite objections about a provision directing $4 billion in emergency aid to local communities to buy and rehabilitate foreclosed homes.

The measure, approved during a weekend session in the Senate, allows homeowners who cannot afford their monthly payments to refinance into government-backed loans. The bill also offers temporary financial help to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The bill won approval in the House on Wednesday by a vote of 272-152, overcoming Republican objections about extending an unlimited line of credit to the two government-sponsored mortgage-finance titans.

The bill gained momentum as worries about the health of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac spread. Some House and Senate Republicans were skeptical of a plan unveiled by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on July 13 that extends a line of credit to the two and allows the government to buy their stock if necessary.

Paulson’s plan is included in the bill passed by the House and the Senate, and he praised its passage Saturday.

“I want to commend the Senate for moving swiftly to pass important GSE legislation that will provide temporary authorities to give confidence to markets and will create a strong, independent regulator better able to address the risks these enterprises pose,” Paulson said in a statement.

“As the President has said, we are disappointed that the legislation includes extraneous provisions that can hinder our efforts to get through the housing correction quickly,” he said. “But it is of the utmost importance to our market and economic stability that the GSE portions of this bill become law. These components are orders of magnitude more important to turning the corner on the housing correction.”

Reactions within the industry have been mostly positive as well.

“The mortgage mess is so big, with some many culprits and so many victims, there is no perfect solution, but, by all accounts, this seems like a step in the right direction,” stated Saul Klein, president/CEO, InternetCrusade and CEO of Point2 Technologies.

After the bill passed the House last Wednesday, NAR president *** Gaylord praised the effort, urging that it be finalized and passed into law immediately.

“Realtors® are in the business of building communities, and our 1.2 million members understand that this legislation will go a long way in helping people buy and keep their homes,” says NAR President *** Gaylord. “We look forward to prompt Senate action to finalize this bill, helping ensure that every American who can afford to own a home and wants to do so will have the opportunity and that everyone who responsibly owns a home is able to keep it. This bill must get to the president quickly, and we urge him to act immediately to sign it into law.”

David Charron, president and CEO of Maryland-based MRIS, the largest MLS in the nation, noted that the bill gives Realtors an opportunity to reach out to homeowners.

“First of all, this action bodes well for the consumer,” Charron said. “Realtors may ultimately see benefits but only after the consumer understands what these benefits are. This decision is a perfect opportunity to for the real estate professional to establish a meaningful and valuable conversation with homeowners.”

Added Mike Parker, a principle at the Blackwater Consulting Group, which specializes in online marketing for real estate professionals: “The housing bill is a very good thing for our industry for three primary reasons: It sends an unmistakable message to the American people that the government is not going to allow chaos to proceed; it contains a significant tax credit for first time buyers that will spur home buying by that segment and it removed the need to foreclose on many homeowners; many will now be saved. In a macro sense, there were better solutions, but we got this one. I see the glass as half full.”

With home prices down 16 percent from their 2006 peak and foreclosures at a record high, lawmakers have been working on the housing bill for months in an effort to help homeowners and the overall market.

The bill contains a tax break of as much as $7,500 for first-time home buyers, creates a new regulator to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and allows the government to insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages.

Shares of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have seesawed in recent weeks as they faced concerns about their capital levels.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said the overall bill deals with a housing crisis brought about by “bad decisions and inaction and malfeasance from years before.”

The rescue plan would extend an unlimited line of credit to the two mortgage-finance giants for 18 months and give the Treasury the authority - also for 18 months - to buy Fannie and Freddie shares if the Treasury deems the companies’ capital to be inadequate.

Some lawmakers have been skittish about the administration’s plan for the GSEs, calling it a “blank check” that potentially puts U.S. taxpayers on the hook.

But opponents of the bill acknowledged that they didn’t have enough allies to block the backstop for the government-sponsored enterprises.

A Freddie Mac spokesman recently praised the bill in a statement.

“Passage of this bill sends a helpful signal of confidence to housing markets and investors. Freddie Mac will continue doing its part to help the economy by raising private capital, helping put families into homes through sound underwriting, and helping troubled borrowers avoid foreclosure,” Doug Duvall said.

Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd said “the legislation should reinforce confidence that the GSEs will be able to serve the housing finance system now and in the future.”

On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office said the plan could cost the government up to $25 billion. However, the same report said chances are better than 50 percent that the government wouldn’t need to help the companies out.

Picture this: More online photos means more interest in home

by: Amy Hoak, Market Watch 

To sell a home with an Internet listing, it pays to provide pictures -- and lots of them, according to a recent study from an e-commerce and online marketing firm that serves the real-estate industry.

Too much exposure can be a bad thing

How many photos are overkill for a listing?

by: Bernice Ross, Inman News

Are you marketing your listings with just one picture or are you marketing with 20 or more? Is it possible that too many pictures online is preventing buyers from looking at your property?

The research is clear that having only a single photo of your listings online causes Web visitors to search elsewhere. The challenge is how much is enough and how much is too much? A new study from Point2 Agent suggests that the more pictures you have the better it is. Jeff Turner, the CEO of RealEstateShows.com, argues that based upon attention-span research, five to nine pictures is about all the brain can handle in 30 to 60 seconds.

Point2Agent has just released a new study that measures the impact of photos in terms of marketing listings online. This study replicates the results of a study the company conducted in 2007. The current study examined three variables and plotted them against the number of pictures on each site:

1. Detailed views

2. Interest in terms of interaction with the listing on a Web site (i.e. how many times visitors viewed a virtual tour, viewed the listing on a partner site, completed a mortgage calculation for the property, etc.)

3. Leads generated

The study evaluated all Point2 listings entered into their system during the first quarter of 2008. The sample consisted of more than 100,000 listings and included listings from all 50 states, every Canadian province, plus other countries worldwide. All price ranges were represented.

Results

1. Listings that lacked photos performed poorly in the study, generating little consumer response and business. Those that had one picture performed better, but not nearly as well as the sites that had 21 to 36 photos. In fact, those listings that had no picture generated 0.02 percent of the number of listing views as compared to those with 21 or more photos.

2. Compared to listings with only one photo, those with 21 or more photos generated more than triple the number of Detailed Views, more than double the amount of interest, and double the number of Leads.

3. Compared to listings with no photos, those with 21 or more photos generated more than 55 times the number of Detailed Views and nearly 27 times the amount of Interest.

4. Comparable results were obtained when plotting these three key variables against varying numbers of photographs per listing.

5. Views, Interest and Leads jumped 20 percent or more as the number of photos increased from 15 to 16.

The study seems to confirm that having additional photos on an agent or broker Web site affects the stickiness of the site, which leads to substantially higher lead conversion.

RealEstateShows.com's Turner makes a fascinating counterargument. According to Turner, "We've spent a lot of time researching how the brain works when viewing property online. A key point to consider is attention span. There's a reason that television commercials are 30 or 60 seconds. Rather than doing a three- or four-minute movie or virtual tour, we have found that that the brain can absorb about five photos in 30 seconds or nine photos in 60 seconds. If you create a video that is longer than 30 to 60 seconds and that is packed full of pictures, you will exceed the amount that the brain can absorb."

Turner uses himself as an example. When he and his wife were looking for house, his agent showed several properties they did not like. Even though they were adamant about purchasing a single-family residence, the agent encouraged them to look at a duplex. After continued requests, they looked at the duplex and fell in love with it.

Turner goes on to say, "This sale would never have happened if my wife and I had been looking online. We would have never looked at the property because we would have ruled it out when we set up our search criteria. This is exactly the problem with giving Web visitors more and more information. The more information you give them, the easier you are making it for them to exclude your listing from the ones they want to see. Your role in Web marketing is to get them to come out and see the house -- not to give them so much information that they decide not to look at your listing."

The Point2 study clearly indicates that having multiple pictures is a smart idea. Increasing them from 15 to 16 generates 20 percent more leads. On the other hand, we have no way of knowing how many buyers ruled out a specific property because they viewed it online.

What should you do? You can track your page views using Point2's system, Google Analytics or one of the many other tracking tools on the Web. Change the number of pictures and watch your results to determine what works best in your market.

Bulk of Home Buyers Attracted to Listings with High Photo Count – Point2 Technologies 2008 Study

Online buyers clicking away from listings with fewer photos - Double the interest and 200 percent jump in leads indicate photos key to help move real estate

Saskatoon, SK, and Vancouver, BC, July 10, 2008 – Point2 Technologies Inc. (“Point2”), the real estate industry’s largest independent provider of website and listing syndication software for real estate professionals today released findings from its 2008 Point2 Agent Photo Effectiveness Study, Rich Listings; Rich Agents.

The Study set out to examine the impact of photos in driving real estate transactions, as part of a broker’s or agent’s online marketing efforts.

Results strongly suggest that adding more photos generates better response to real estate listings, reconfirming trends observed in a 2007 study also by Point2.

The Study tracked three trends, namely consumer Views, Interest and Leads. All increased significantly as the number of still photos related to the listings increased.

Listings that did not include any photos performed very poorly, generating little consumer response and business. Specifically, the Study showed that listings with zero photos attract, on average, a mere 0.02 percent of the detailed listing views that listings with 21 to 36 photos enjoy.

Listings that featured a single photo fared significantly better.

“Once again the data indicates that online home shoppers want rich content, specifically in the form of more photos, otherwise they intend to move on to the next listing,” said Carey Tufts, Director of Marketing, Point2 Technologies. “Especially in today’s market, home sellers and their agents do not have to take this risk. The data sends a powerful message. With more than 80 percent of home buyers continuing to do their research online, agents must attach more photos to their listings for them to stand out and attract more potential buyers.”

Key Findings

Compared to listings with only one photo, those with 21 or more photos generated more than triple the number of Detailed Views, more than double the amount of Interest, and double the number of Leads. 

Compared to listings with no photos, those with 21 or more photos generated more than fifty-five times the number of Detailed Views, nearly twenty-seven times the amount of Interest, and eight hundred and ninety-eight times the number of Leads. 

Views, Interest and Leads jumped 20 percent or more as the number of photos increased from 15 to 16.

Performance in terms of Detailed Views, Interest and Leads generated trended up almost identically during the test period. 

Fig. 1.0  2008 Point2 Agent Photo Effectiveness Study

Added Tufts, “The days of putting out little information in the hopes that buyers will phone in to learn more are gone.  Strategies have to shift.  There are many technology solutions real estate professionals can leverage – Point2 Agent for example allows up to 36 photos per listing, and we hope to motivate members to improve upon their current average of 9.2 photos per listing.  Buyers, sellers and real estate professionals alike stand to benefit.”

Methodology

All For Sale properties entered by real estate professionals into the Point2 Agent website network over the first quarter of 2008 were included in the Study, for a sample of well over 100,000 active listings. The Study covered a wide variety of economic regions across every U.S. state, every Canadian province and several other countries around the world.

The sample of listings was analyzed based on the number of photos that each listing included. The number of photos added was then plotted against three key variables:

Views - tracked how many times a listing was viewed online;
Interest - measured how many unique visitors interacted with a listing, such as going beyond the initial set of photos to view the listing’s virtual tour, complete a mortgage calculation or, access more details about the property; and,
Leads - recorded the number of unique visitors who went on to contact the listing broker or agent. 

About Point2 Technologies Inc.
Point2 Technologies develops and markets web-based e-commerce and online marketing software solutions for the real estate and heavy equipment industries. In real estate, Point2 is the largest independent provider of website and listing syndication software for real estate professionals, with nearly 200,000 brokers and agents subscribing to the Point2 Agent platform, in 100 countries. Point2’s real estate user base continues to grow by over 1200 additional members each week. Point2 also owns and operates the real estate consumer search portal, Point2 Homes (www.Point2Homes.com).

In the heavy equipment industry, Point2 is a leading provider of e-commerce solutions, powers Caterpillar Inc.’s global heavy equipment dealer network and owns and operates www.UsedIron.com, one of the largest used equipment venues online.

Founded in 1996, Point2 Technologies is privately held and employs a staff of 100 at its headquarters in Saskatoon, SK and its Vancouver, BC offices. More information can be obtained at www.Point2.com.

Point2® is a trademark of Point2 Technologies Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Media Contact

Roger Noujeim
Vice President of Public Relations
Point2 Technologies Inc.
Toll Free: 1-888-955-7900 (U.S. and Canada)
rnoujeim@point2.com