BROKER RECIPROCITY REQUIRED VERBIAGE: The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the Broker Reciprocity Program of the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than The Realty Matrix, Inc. are marked with the Broker Reciprocity logo and detailed information about them includes the name of the listing brokers.
My websites used to have two menu tabs that referred to searching for "listings": one tab said "Our Listings" (a clearinghouse of ads placed by agents) and the other said "Property Listings" (the MLS access point). Any place where a listing is downloaded from the MLS the logo and verbiage shown above must be placed on the download. Tuesday, I received an e-mail (a very official looking e-mail I might add) stating that my website was in violation of the Regional Multiple Listing Service's guidelines for listings on an agent's site. I was pretty upset. The MLS was asking me to add the Broker Reciprocity logo and disclaimer to the "Our Listings" page on my website which is NOT an MLS download. For those who don't know me, I am fairly compulsive about reading the rules and making sure what I do complies with the rules of the road. I had been careful to follow those rules in designing my website. Imagine my surprise to be given 5 days to correctly give credit to Broker Reciprocity on the "Our Listings" tab or incur a fine!
The fix would be easy except for one small glitch. If I added the Broker Reciprocity logo and verbiage, the listings would have to have been downloaded from the MLS. They are not. The listings on the former "Our Listings" page are actually entered by each individual agent into the website cooperative. From there the web host publishes the ad on a community page shared by all agents with that web host. The "Our Listings" pages were really like one page websites advertising each agent's entry. This may be persnickety, but they did not deserve the honor of being labeled as a download from the MLS, nor should the MLS inherit liability for something they have no control over.
Separating the MLS from the ads was a matter of semantics for me. Once an online friend suggested to put a disclaimer that the "listings" on this page are not downloaded from the MLS, it suddenly made sense. The properties displayed on that page are all advertisements! They're not listings at all. They're ads! Just like the Star Tribune! Eureka, I have it. The menu tab has now been changed to read "Property Ads" and a disclaimer has been added to the top of the "ad" page as follows:
This page contains real estate advertising submitted to the Point2Agent Handshake program by the individual real estate brokerages cited on the bottom of each ad. The property information has not been provided by the Broker Reciprocity Program of the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc. Listings from the Broker Reciprocity Program of the Regional Multiple Listing Service (MLS) of Minnesota, Inc. can be reviewed on the "Search Listings" tab of this website and will be marked with the Broker Reciprocity logo.
I'm hoping this clarification will pass the board of review in the next couple days, and that my distinction between listing (from the Multiple Listing Service) and advertisement (marketing done by the individual brokerage) will meet with approval. I'll keep you posted!
For more information on Broker Reciprocity read my post from January 30 and April 18.
Comments