Follow Up to NAR and 'MLS'

[Bob Crain]

Perhaps I would understand it if there was a court case that involved a consumer complaining about it. To my knowledge, I don't even know of a complaint...

You will NEVER see a court case like that... Why would a consumer complain that a real estate agent made it easier to find listings?

[Joe Cline Austin]

agreed. we'd be more likely to see a sitting judge bring a $54 Million dollar lawsuit against a dry cleaners for losing his pants.

[Bob Crain]

Does it make anyone feel like getting their broker license and not becoming a member of NAR?

As Jessie said most boards still require you to be a member in order to view, access, or display the MLS listings on your site. So, for 99% of us getting a brokers license will not solve the Stupid NAR Rule issue.

After NAR fought and lost the last Major anti-internet crusade ( http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f211000/211009.pdf ) you would think that they would wake up.

[thataway61]

After NAR fought and lost the last Major anti-internet crusade ( http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f211000/211009.pdf ) you would think that they would wake up.

Nice detective work Bob.
Morgan should read paragraph 23 in regards to the "MRIS MLS" IDX thread or blog entry -

23. By virtue of industry-wide participation and control over a critically important

input, MLS joint ventures have market power in almost every relevant market.

41. The aforesaid contract, combination, or conspiracy has had and will continue to
have anticompetitive effects in the relevant markets, including:
a. suppressing technological innovation;
b. reducing competition on price and quality;
c. restricting efficient cooperation among brokers;
d. making express or tacit collusion more likely; and

e. raising barriers to entry.

[thataway61]

On a second note in regards to MarcinSarasota, maybe Mark should go ahead and set up an additional URL for aging purposes as a backup plan.

I would be glad to give a one way link for the benefit of the new URL as it aged.

[John Allen]

Marc,

I just joined the Real Estate Webmasters forum and read your post about the fact that the Sarasota Board "grievance committee" filed a complaint against you. This is a bunch of BS. If there is anything I can do to help fight the complaint, let me know. We all need to protect our rights to use the term MLS on our websites. Almost every real estate website here uses the term "Sarasota MLS" on their site.

You have had your site up for what 4 or 5 years. Why is this an issue now?

[John Allen]

P.S. Are they going to file a complaint against me for using "Sarasota MLS" in my signature???

[thataway61]

Marc,
You need to revisit the Hormel lawsuits over the use of the word SPAM (vs Spam or spam).

I would just put in lower case and call it mls (as it is in your URL) or Marcs Listing Service (of course Marcs Listing Service should not be confused with the IDX service provided on your site which is fully compliant with the rules)

I don't see how the use of MLS can be prevented. It has become a generic term whether the boards like it or not. The cat got out of the bag a long time ago. If anyone has a complaint it should be Major League Soccer not the complaining entities that are by the way funded by the members they are holding harmful.

[Bob Crain]

Folks,

http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f211000/211009.pdf

The above case is the case that opened up the ability of the Internet broker to compete on a level playing field with the "traditional broker".

Now NAR is fighting to try and limit our abilities to compete on that level playing field. It would appear that Certain Board members and special interests within NAR have a vested interest in gaining back control of the Internet from the Tech-Savvy agents and Brokers.

How are they doing that? One of the ways is by limiting the use of generic terms or phrases. This new rule only effects Realtors who want to display MLS data on their sites. It does not effect the general public who own sites, other non-Realtor(R) owned sites, and sites that these same NAR board members have financial interests in ( sites like realtor . com and move ) own, nor does it effect sites from lead generation companies. These terms have been widely used for several years and this is not trademark issues but a control issue on who can and is able to use these specific keyword phrases to control the flow of leads and therefore control the commission splits that are paid to Real Estate agents.

If they limit our abilities to generate leads, but not their abilities to generate those leads, they can dictate the amount of commissions that are paid out. One of the major trends that has happened in the last 5 years is the growth in 100% commission brokerages and the resulting reduction in the amount of total commission being charged to the public. Because the person who is actually doing all the work has less overhead.

NAR (and the large brokerages that control it) have tried for years to limit the use of the Internet, that failed, then they tried for years to purchase exclusive rights for the Use of Major League Soccer's trademark of MLS, and was not successful, now they have changed the ethics rules.

This rules change is designed to force small businesses to either close down, change their companies names (names that have been in use for Years), sell their companies to Non-Realtors, or quit their local boards and try to compete without access to the local MLS (in other words try to compete on a non-level playing field).

With the above court ruling we have case law that backs us up on this fight.

>>>Hello DOJ,
Are you going to protect our small businesses? Businesses Like Marc's -www.sarasotamls.com are being attacked by their local and national trade associations. Associations that are in specific violation of the Sherman act section 1 and 2. DOJ you have already ruled that these associations should be protecting not interfering in the abilities of the online agents to compete on a level playing field, I think it is about time for you to step up to the plate again and get this illegal monopoly off our backs.

[MarcinSarasota]

Marc,

I just joined the Real Estate Webmasters forum and read your post about the fact that the Sarasota Board "grievance committee" filed a complaint against you. This is a bunch of BS. If there is anything I can do to help fight the complaint, let me know. We all need to protect our rights to use the term MLS on our websites. Almost every real estate website here uses the term "Sarasota MLS" on their site.

You have had your site up for what 4 or 5 years. Why is this an issue now?

Hey John,

How's it going? Sorry for the delay. I didn't get an email from the forum with your response and have not been around much.

Thanks for the offer. I will let you know how it goes. My attorney filed the response last week. Part of our argument is that I have had the domain since 2003. Their own rules state that they need to file a complaint within 6 months of the known infraction.

We'll see what happens. How's business?