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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Green who wrote (15010)	11/12/2003 6:57:14 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Opposing View Goal is to maintain trust By Walt McDonald Today more than 2 million homes are listed for sale on the nation's 900 Realtor-association-owned-and-operated Multiple Listing Services. The services help home sellers reach the largest possible markets and make the full range of properties for sale in a given marketplace easily available to homebuyers. They're one reason the U.S. residential property market is the most efficient in the world. The listings that comprise MLS databases are submitted by real estate professionals who work hard to obtain their clients and market their properties for them. New rules recently approved by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) will allow real estate brokers who operate Web sites called VOWs — or virtual office Web sites — to make available on those Web sites not only their own property listings but also the listings of other brokers included in the MLS. The new rules will make it possible for consumers who register with the brokers of their choice to search and review online most of the same information that is available to real estate professionals. NAR's policy incorporates the common-sense principle that the broker who worked hard to obtain listings ought to have, and does retain, the right to control on what other Web sites those listings will appear. This provision allows the broker to protect a seller's privacy. It also preserves the broker's right to market listings as he or she sees fit, so that, for example, those listings do not appear on Web sites the broker determines are inappropriate. In light of listing brokers' fiduciary responsibilities to their customers, it's likely this provision will be rarely exercised, if at all. Since its birth in the 19th century, when real estate brokers traded listings on 3-by-5 cards, the MLS system has been built on trust. As the Information Age makes the real estate business even more efficient and transparent, trust among professionals and between Realtors and their clients remains the foundation of our business. For that reason, we believe that the MLS system will continue to serve real estate buyers and sellers as well in the future as it has in the past. Walt McDonald is president of the National Association of Realtors. usatoday.com