Be careful about MLS violations

Last week I received an e-mail from the local Board of Realtors, informing me that I had committed an MLS violation.  That caught me completely by surprise.

The infraction: Posting a link in Tempo to my video of a listing.  That in itself wasn't an infraction, but including my contact information in the video made it a violation.

Wow!  Were you aware of this? I remember our Board having informed members about putting contact information in the remarks section of a listing.  That info was distributed about two years ago.  From that point on, we were subject to penalties if we included our name, phone and/or e-mail address in the information viewable by the public.

The purpose was to even the playing field, so that prospective buyers would contact their own agents rather than attempting to contact the listing agent directly.  That seems fair. 

Afterwards, I routinely noticed virtual tours on the MLS that included the listing agents' photo, website address, e-mail and phone number on a sidebar to the tour.  Thus I did not think it was a problem to include my contact information on a video.

Then the e-mail arrived.  The Board sent me several screenshots of the violation and made it clear this should be corrected immediately.

A funny thing happened that day...

Just so happens, on that same day I had switched brokerages and the listing stayed with the brokerage.  I made the brokerage change that morning and went on the road with a customer to look at properties.  In the afternoon when I received the e-mail, the Board already changed my brokerage and I could no longer edit the listing.  I called my former broker and left a message with a person who oversees listings.

The next day the listing was still there, unchanged.  I was getting worried.  The violation notice said to fix the problem within four days or be subject to penalties.  I got ahold of someone in the office and they said they couldn't change the listing either.  They contacted the Board of Realtors and faxed a change form over.  Eventually the violation was removed and everything is okay now. 

Clarification from the Board of Realtors

I called the MLS violations desk and asked for clarification.  They confirmed that photos, virtual tours and videos should not have contact information.

After a thorough search on the internet I was able to find this paragraph from our MLS rules and regulations:

Section 4.9 LISTING BROKERS CONTACT INFORMATION: Listing brokers are prohibited from providing contact information, including but not limited to phone numbers, email addresses and web site addresses within the body of listing remarks, photos or virtual tours that can be viewed, displayed or printed by the general public.

What about the other agents?

Update - April 25, 2008

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