Looking for NWMLS Advice

[mrswoop]

Greetings All ~

This is my first post... what a great idea for a website! I hope to be a regular.

I am a former IT professional well versed in .Net development and architecture. I have no concerns about developing the solution I need... my difficulty is in navigating the politics.

As nearly as I can figure it out. The NWMLS provides access only to brokers and not agents, limited to two feeds. One they usually retain and the other they lease out to someone who does revenue share with them selling hosted realtor sites. This may not be entirely accurate, but seems to be the case most of the time.

Is there anyone out there that can truly confirm or deny this suspicion? Or help me locate a provider for NWMLS data that I can use?

Ideally I would like to have access to a RETS feed, and would pay for that privilege (if necessary beyond my MLS dues). Obviously, I want the data going through my own personally developed site rather than through a hosted solution.

Your advice is appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Scott

[RobertD]

Hi, Scott. Very few people know NWMLS better than me, so I can certainly shed some light on your questions.

Access to data is indeed limited to brokers and not agents. Brokers are allowed only 2 accounts to access the data.

NWMLS does NOT allow brokers to lease out their access to others, and anyone doing so is violating MLS rules. I think it's just a matter of semantics, however. The broker is not leasing the access account, merely assigning it.

NWMLS has their own XML data solution (not RETS compliant), but like you already said, that's available to brokers (and their third party providers). NWMLS does allow the broker/3rd party provider to resell the use of the data to other parties, but not the data itself.

So for example, if my company was providing you a RETS interface to access the data for a fee, the fee would be for use of the interface, not the data itself.

My company does not currently provide access to the data to outside parties though we do have an automatic agent website service for agents associated with one of our broker/clients. If you tell me which broker you are with, I can tell you whether or not you can get this service through your broker.

Barring that possibility, I can give you a reference for someone that may be able to help you. Check out Logical Dog at www.logicaldog.com. They have a data search tool that can be easily incorporated into an existing site. They also do custom work as well.

Also, if all you want is the data to use as you see fit, check out a company in FL called RPIS. They already have a NWMLS download and can provide data in a usable format for a relatively cheap price: www.rpis.com

I hope this helps.

[smak]

RobertD - Can you contact me. I'm a broker in the NWMLS looking for mapping with IDX data.

[RobertD]

I replied to your private message, and I'll post the same here in case others have similar questions.

Interactive mapping is but one of our products. My company does the full website for John L Scott and other brokers as well as a host of other data services.

I'm the database administrator at my company, and I'm not really able to answer the kinds of questions you may have. If you send an email to sales@realtechllc.com, someone better equipped to discuss this will be able to help you.

Regards,
Robert Davis.