Metrolist Restricting Use of Term 'MLS'
Posted Sep 5, 2008 @ 7:10 pm, Viewed by 290 Visitors, Read 338 Times.Metrolist, Inc. of Colorado has recently notified its vendors of a change to their MLS Rules & Regulations to restriction the use of the term 'MLS' in its members' URL's, brokerage names, domain names, email addresses, or in any other way that may misrepresent themselves as the MLS. All current uses of such terms must cease no later than October 31st, 2008. The new rules states:
MLS Rules & Regulations Section 15.5 IDX Display Subsection (3):
3. Participants, Users and Licensees shall not use the term "multiple listing service," the acronym "MLS," or derivatives thereof, in Participant names, except as provided in Section 3.4 (3). In addition, Participants, Users and Licensees shall not use the term "multiple listing service," the acronym "MLS," or derivatives thereof in Participant names, name of their firm, domain names, web addresses, uniform resource locators (URLs), e-mail addresses, blog address, or in any other way represent, suggest or imply that the individual or firm is an MLS, or that they operate an MLS. All existing uses of such terms must cease no later than October 31, 2008 unless the Participant's or User's name is protected by, and only to the extent protected by, Section 3.4 (3).
Participants, Users and Licensees shall not represent, suggest or imply that consumers or others have direct or indirect access to MLS databases, or that consumers or others are able to search MLS databases (e.g., "Search the MLS", "Access Metrolist MLS", etc.) available only to Participants, Users and Licensees.
An interesting caveat to the above rule is that Metrolist has suggested some useful replacement to the use of the term 'MLS':
- MLS IDX
- Property Search
- Search IDX
- Find Denver Homes
- Colorado Property Listings
- Same listings as MLS IDX
- IDX Property Listings
- Search MLS IDX
- Locate your new home
- Search for Denver (or any city) Properties
If you have any questions about this or any other change to the Metrolist IDX, please comment below.
Rate this Post!
Share this Post
Print
Social Bookmarking5 Responses to “Metrolist Restricting Use of Term 'MLS'”
Those rules seem kind of ridiculous. We want our customers to know that they can view MLS listings on our websites! Anyone could put his brokerage's listings on a site and make them accessible through "Property Search" icon.
I'm glad the Honolulu Board of Realtors isn't doing anything like that.
It's been a trend so don't be surprised if it happens in your board - you have the NAR to thank for that with their revisions to the COE
Not that I can totally agree with the MLS's, but their contention is that to imply anyone has access to the MLS is misrepresenting yourself on your website. There are SOLD listings, expired listings, listings where the seller has explicitly asked not to be advertised, and listings where the brokerage does not participate in the sharing of listings that are available in the MLS and not available through IDX. The problem is, most consumers do not know or care about the difference. When they hear 'MLS', they think 'Active Listings'. And because IDX is not a ubiquitous term (or even very well known at all), it does not serve as a reliable replacement.
So I know MRIS is not the right place to play "Gotcha MLS language ntegration", but in the body of my area pages, would it be inappropriate, by definition, to have a paragraph that I could title "Can I search the Bethesda MLS?" Then in the answer say there's really no Bethesda MLS. The Bethesda MLS by definition is all properties that are active, sold (blah)...However, this website allows you to access all of Bethesda property listings currently for sale (blah....). That's cool right? - K
REW Blogs User Stats
Currently Online Users:
0
Total Users:
1,894
Entries:
5,758
Unique Views:
3,312,959
Total Views:
3,456,744
Total Comments:
6,311
Our purpose is to keep you up to date on all of the changes to the Multiple Listing Services that affect you. Read More
Contact Me
RSS Feed- This User's Stats
-
Blog Entries: 41Average Blog Rating: 1Unique Views: 18,262Total Views: 18,813Comments Posted: 26Comments Received: 38
Top Rated
REW Blogs RSS Feed
So you can say any of these?