Below is a comment left on an April entry on my blog about MLS (multiple listing service.)  The comment was left on the blog entry three times last week. The three comments were identical. The three comments had three links to a URL for a brokerage in Illinois, for a total of nine links to their website. 

Inexpensive search engine optimization? 

My April entry "Search MLS"

My point was you are searching advertising derived from the MLS via IDX.

Alphabet soup!    

re: "Search MLS"

Posted by Anonymous at 7:13 AM, Jul. 28, 2006

All links to the Illinois broker spammer's website have been removed

"What is MLS listing and how to get its membership?  MLS listing is a database that allows a real estate broker representing a seller to widely share the information about the property for sale with real estate brokers representing buyers. It enables a real estate broker to list all the property he wants to sell to the potential buyers. The real estate broker can also retrieve all the information about the properties for sale in a particular area, whether listed by his own brokerage or others.

The MLS acts as an exchange for the real estate agents. But the realtors need to take membership to the MLS in order to put information or to collect information about the other real estate agents. Membership to MLS exchange is only for those people who are part of a trade union.  A properly licensed broker, who chooses to neither join the trade association nor operate a business within the association’s rules, cannot join the MLS. Similarly, a person who is selling his/her own property cannot put up a listing directly into the MLS.

The realtors in United States can join the National Association of Realtors (NAR), in order to list their property on the MLS. But the NAR restricts the limit of information shown on the MLS by the real estate agents. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an antitrust lawsuit, claiming that NAR’s policy restricts brokers from establishing websites that show home sellers information that is in the MLS. The DOJ's antitrust claims also include NAR rules that exclude certain kinds of brokers from membership in MLSs. *The real estate brokers in Canada can put their listing by membership to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

There are alternatives available for MLS listing. There are websites which allow the licensed realtors or non-realtors to put up their property for sale as well as allow the prospective buyers to search for House/property, without any cost. "

It is spelled REALTORS®.

Real estate associations are not trade unions, they are trade associations. 

Real estate is local. In some parts of the country you do not have to be a member of the local real estate board to be a member of the multiple listing service (MLS), south east US, and Washington State come to mind. Real estate licensing is on a state level. Real estate licensees do not have to become REALTORS® to sell real estate in any state that I know of.  REALTORS® are members of the local association of REALTORS®, State associations and the National Association, NAR.  The local boards, a trade association, does limit use of the multiple listing service to members.  An MLS (multiple listing service)  is not a public utility. There are brokers who have tried to become members of a local mls (multiple listing service) without being members of the local REALTOR® associations. Recent court cases in Wisconsin and  Kentucky were decided in favor of the local and state REALTOR® associations. A third case in Florida was thrown out as the licensee passed away.  The attorney could not find a licensee in the state of Florida to carry on the class action lawsuit against the local and state association of REALTORS®.

Anonymous wrote:
"There are websites which allow the licensed realtors or non-realtors to put up their property for sale as well as allow the prospective buyers to search for House/property, without any cost. " 

Yes! Consumers committed to not paying real estate commissions to market their properties have lists they can put their properties on lists of homes offered for sale with out traditional real estate agents, without the Multiple Listing Service (MLS.)  Consumers have choices.  

There is no cost to search for "House/property" on http://MaureenMcCabe.com

There is no cost to search for "House/property" on http://www.ColumbusOHHomes4Sale.com

There is no cost to search for "House/property" on http://www.HERRealtors.com

Prospective buyers can search away at NO cost at many real estate websites across the US!  Real estate is local. 

Consumers can sell their own automobiles.  Consumers who are selling their own automobiles don't expect local car dealers Ricart, Germain, MAG, etc. to let the sellers drop the car off on the dealers lot to let buyers view the car. We have CarMax in town now.... I don't think they will let me drop off my car and let me sell it on their lot either.

Maybe that is different in Illinois?  

Anonymous wrote:

*The real estate brokers in Canada can put their listing by membership to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA)."

Move to Canada? 

Copyright 2006 Columbus Best Blog and Maureen McCabe

Do Chicago home buyers have a buyers market on their hands?   Sunday's Chicago Tribune headline declared a buyers  market.   What about the rest of Illinois?  I often think of Chicago and Illinois being synonamous, then I remember I lived in Rockford Illinois which was not Chicago.  I know REALTOR® bloggers in Illinois who are not in Chicago or even the Chicago area. 

Sunday's Chicago Tribune said they are in a buyer's market.  I heard about the article from Illinois REALTORS® before I read it.  I heard on a national real estate forum that what was being described was a normal market not a buyer's market. 

The Chicago Tribune Article is headlined:

Probably requires sign in .....

By Mary Umberger
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 7, 2006

" In the housing market, this is what "normal" feels like:

Homes sell in months, not hours. Prospective buyers actually browse.  They drift back for a second look at a place weeks later, confident that it still will be available. They want the price cut.  And they get it.

It's been a long time--at least five years--since the Chicago area's real estate market worked this way.

But many agents say the buying frenzy is now over, and "normal" has returned.  Prices this year will appreciate less rapidly, and in many cases houses won't sell themselves before a sign has even gone into the ground.  "

'Chicago Tribune Scare Tactics Sell Papers and Ads'

Chicago Mortgage Blog

Chicago Mortgage Guru Dan Green wrote: 

"Normal"does not equate to a "Buyer's Market".   If "normal "favored the buyer and not the seller, Real Estate prices would face continual downward pressure instead of upward pressure.  "Normal"is good for the seller."

Illinois Real Estate Blogs:

Eileen Landau's Naperville, Illinois Real Estate Blog

Gene Molloy's Des Plaines, Illinois Real Estate Blog

Barb Krueger's  Springfield,  Illinois Real Estate Blog

Dan Moore's Quad Cities Blog - Iowa / Illinois Border

Normal is a town in Illinois

the  Normal Illinois website includes this history:

In my family history I vaguely remember a picture of an aunt or a great aunt who went to teachers school in Normal Illinois, and I remembered hearing a normal school was a teachers college. 

I wonder if there is a town or village of Buyers Illinois?  Is it a buyers market in Normal Illinois?  Is it a sellers market in Normal Illinois?  Is it a normal market in Normal Illinois.  Normal is in Central Illinois, not too near Chicago. 

More Real Estate is Local on Columbus Best Blog:

Midwestern Geography Debate - Is Ohio in the Midwest?

Ohio is the Heart of it All   

Michigan Real Estate Blogs

I have to agree with Dan Green, a normal market is not a buyers market! 

Copyright 2006 Columbus Best Blog and Maureen McCabe