Pulling listings question

[BrandonSternfield]

Okay, first the scenario!

• My firm is on a Top Producer Website.
• They will NOT change this.
• We currently have 10 Realtors, and plan on having way more soon (I've been told 30 before 08 is over).
• Top Producer has the functionality to pull listings from the MLS via an Agent ID.
• I want to use the Office ID, and they plan on supporting this later on, or using multiple Agent ID's, but as back in Feb. they told me by June they would be able to fix Google Webmaster authen, and it still hasn't happened, I'm not holding my breath.

Okay, so that's the scenario. Would this be something I would get a framed IDX for (we already have an ixd, I just want something to show listings that have our office ID. Would it be better price wise to get a custom IDX (hello REW ;D) and ditch the current to do this? I liked the fact that TP showed the listings in the same style as all the other listings on the site (since most are precon or investments, we aren't the listing agents. We are just not starting to do 'normal' realty).

So my questions:

1. Is there a way to get a mini-idx, to just pull the listings I want, without the search feature? If no, see the other questions, if yes, I will love you for half my normal rate.
2. If it's not possible to do that, would I be able to get a custom IDX, to use the TP style, without copyright infringement?

Either way, cost is a factor, but only to an extent. As we plan on doing 50% investments, 50% realty, instead of the current 99/1 we have been doing, there is a budget for it, but I don't have a # yet.

I appreciate everyone's expected response to this

[REW Reed]

Are you a member of the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale?

If that is the case, you have the luxury of the IDX feed from the Florida Association of Realtors... if your broker will give you the access details. If you can access the FAR IDX feed, you can download (or get us to download) the listings from your MLS. FAR now hotlinks its images and has ID's for each image in the listing details, so you won't need to clog up a ton of bandwidth handling property pictures yourself.

Now, in terms of which listings you present, you can either:
A) present all listings supplied in the IDX feed in a fair way (only pruning based off of good criteria like areas or price ranges), or
B) only present the listings from your brokerage.

I cannot comment on the price for either (that's up to Webmaster or someone else in sales to determine) or the copyright issue with Top Producer. I can say that our site designs are pretty awesome and seem to fare quite well in terms of SEO, but I think I am biased...

[BrandonSternfield]

lol if I could sway them, I'd jump over to a custom design. I've actually be slowly convincing them since I started here in feb!

Also, we are actually part of RAMB (Realtor Associated of Miami Beach) which is NOT listed on your quotes page =/ I also put a quote in to get a price.

I've actually taken a lot of the info on the custom and template pages you guys have set up and made a presentation for it. (with some stats I pulled for the sites too :P).

On the plus side, I just had a mini meeting, and the broker has 100% trust in me. Now I need to convince the other two founders! They will be the hard ones.. as one is in love with top producer (since he can edit stuff easily as he doesn't really know web stuff) and the other will go if I can swing the first one.

So I will hopefully have some VERY good news monday evening....

[jessiesc]

but I think I am biased...

Yah think?

[REW Reed]

If RAMB uses FAR for IDX (raw data feeds) like Ft. Lauderdale does, it should be similar. Unfortunately, all their website mentions are framed solutions (no custom options). You will probably have to dig a little deeper.

[BrandonSternfield]

Hmmm... RAMB is part of the South Eastern Florida group... MLXchange handles them. I'm pretty sure they do a feed, since we have a template mls up right now (which in NO way looks anything like our website lol).

I'll have my broker talk to the board to get details

*Edit* Just read through a lot of their legal mumbo jumbo...

INTERNET DATA DISPLAY
Section 19 – Effective January 1, 2002, MLS Participants were able to display
on Participants’ public Web sites aggregated MLS active listing information through,
at Participants’ option, either downloading and placing the data on Participants’
public access Web sites or by framing such information on the MLS or Association
public access Web site (if such a site is available) subject to the requirements of
state law and regulation.
l. The following Policy Statement of Section 12 of these Rules shall apply to all
Internet Display of MLS information: When an Associate of an MLS Participating Office
provides a prospective client/customer with information, including Web Site
information, about property listed with another Broker, the name of the Brokerage Firm
must appear directly below the address in the property information. The type size of
the name of the Listing Brokerage Firm shall be at least as large as the largest type
size used for the majority of the property data. Participants may not place their own
personal information within the text of property information of another Broker’s
listing.
2. Unless state law requires prior written consent from listing brokers, listing
brokers consent for such display is presumed unless a listing broker
affirmatively notifies the MLS that the listing broker refuses to permit display
(either on a blanket or on a listing-by-listing basis). If a Participant
refuses on a blanket basis to permit the display of that Participant’s listings,
then the Participant may not download or frame the aggregated MLS data of other
Participants.

It appears that is a short answer, trying to get a definite 'yes!' for us.