RealTown's RealTalk

I'm totally frustrated. As a one man operation I try to find the easiest and most efficient way of doing things. Sadly, I keep hitting a wall. I recently decided to start syndicating all of my listings. I decided to jump in mostly because I was informed of a company that would syndicate directly with my MLS (MLSLI). Well anyway here's my problem. While ListHub the company affiliated with my MLS states they have not even begun syndicating my listings yet. Within three days I'm told. In the meantime I am finding my listings on various web portals such as zillow. The information is sketchy and inaccurate. The page shows the listing company as sawitonline.com. The contact an agent section has NYhomefinder.com as the contact person with an 800 # attached to an answering machine. I called the number and asked to have someone call me with more info re the listing. No call back. I filled out a request form for more info which offered the option of having a copy of the request sent back to your e mail. I got the copy but never the original request for more info. I have no idea what’s going on. ListHub informs me that they have no idea about these other company’s and goes on to say that what sometimes happens is more than one source submits your listing and subsequently that portal let's say it's zillow will not allow a duplicate of a listing already in their system.  Now, I can go onto the sawitonline site who posted my listing but they have no contact phone number. You can subscribe to their service for a fee and possibly they will clean up your contact information or you can unsubscribe in which case they may remove your listing, who knows? In conclusion, I need to know if anyone out there knows weather I should go ahead use my syndication company ListHub and go to any and all other companies who are posting my listings and ask them to stop. This should stop the confusion? My second concern is, can I go to each of these portals and list my contact info, banner, picture etc and have it displayed every time one of my listings is submitted by ListHub? Before anyone starts to tell me about Point2, I have already spoken to them they do not have a syndication agreement with my MLS (MLSLI). So I would have to manually upload each listing to their website. One of the benefits of Point2 is that they will also help you to upload your listing to a few sites which require manual input such as Craigslist and a few others. So I will use them for those sites. If anyone can offer any advice as to how I can stream-line this whole process please e mail me, at BrianBuru@aol.com and or just post a response.

Editor's Note
Hi Brian,Point2 is waiting for the contract to be returned from MLSLI and we will then be able to take a data feed from MLSLI and send it to your Point2 Website and syndicate it to our current 35 syndication partners.SaulSaul Klein, CEO Point2 Technologies

JIM
The Jim Cummings Team
CRS, GRI, RECS, e-Pro 500
512-633-3853 Mobile & Voice Mail
Judy Tixier, ABR, GRI, 512-415-1083
Real Estate Consultants

AVALAR 360 - 7000 Bee Caves Rd. Austin, TX 78746
512-732-7001 Office 888-633-3853 Toll Free

mailto:Jim@AustinTxMls.com

Website: http://www.AustinTxMls.com

Hello Brian -

Your confusing experience  with listing syndication is very similar to stories we hear from other brokerages we work with.  Unfortunately there is no clear answer to the problem that you are experiencing because no one controls all these companies and how they receive/prioritize/display information.

Based on our work with others, the best approach is to start by talking with any company you currently work with that has your listing content.  I'm talking local news paper, real esate magazines, your IDX vendor, your MLS, your franchise (if you own one), etc.. and tell them to NOT send your data anywhere. Of course, most of them think they are doing you a favor "getting you more exposure" but the listing agent needs to be in control of where your listings go and where the traffic goes back to. 

Once you have a single authorized copy of your listings being distributed responsibly to the sites of your choice, you then can work through a single vendor on any issues with the way they are displaying. 

One day, there might be formal service to allow you to "register" your listing, giving you the ability to designate yourself as the rightful representative and person authorized to make these decisions.  We are working hard with all parties to implement this kind of a system so that brokers and agents will be able to easily control their online marketing.

We are also working closely with the sites that we work with (26 premier sites) to come together and raise the bar on the service, value and transparency offered to the agents and brokers that choose to display their listings on those sites.

I hope we can meet your needs - I suggest that you check out your options with ListHub by creating an account online if you haven't already done so. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly. 

Celeste Starchild

cstarchild@listhub.com

Re: Rules against listing scrapers?

Aloha,

There was a time when we all sort of guarded our listings, but then someone came up with a great idea. They replaced open listings with exclusive agency and exclusive right to sell listings. Then we were able to form associations to spead the word and invite other agents to help us find buyers for our listings. That worked our really well for our clients and what's good for them seemed to be good for us too.

I admit to being equally outraged when I realized some advertising media were taking my hard earned advertising dollars then capturing and selling leads off my ads.  On the other hand, when the advertisement is free and it puts my listing in front of more prospects, that increases the demand for my lising and seems to serve my client's needs.

Times change and the adaptable tend to survive. I've been trying to adapt by figuring out how to expose my listings better and for less. Reading the remarks in this thread makes me wonder if I will ever catch on to this business.

Mahalo, Joyce Murphy R(B) Hawaiian Isle Real Estate LLC.

Joyce@JoyceMurphyRealtor.com

totally frustrated. As a one man operation I try to find the easiest and
most efficient way of doing things. Sadly, I keep hitting a wall. I recently
decided to start syndicating all of my listings. I decided to jump in mostly
because I was informed of a company that would syndicate directly with my
MLS (MLSLI). Well anyway here's my problem. While ListHub the company
affiliated with my MLS states they have not even begun syndicating my
listings yet. Within three days I'm told. In the meantime I am finding my
listings on various web portals such as zillow.

================================================================

Brian

M y understanding is on Zillow permits someone to "Claim" your listing.
Sounds like what has happened.
JIM

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What does that mean, "Claimed Your Listing"???? I don't follow...

Have a great day!

Best regards,

Paul Silver
Focus Professionals, Inc.