We created a mini MLS and I'm curious why no one has considered the same. In fact when I was referred to this forum I thought I'd find all kinds of similar endeavors. Here is how ours transpired.

Nearly 16 (sixteen) years ago while working in the graphics department for a printing company, I was doing a quality thumb through (that’s scanning through the publication off the press for errors) with one of our clients Free Real Estate rag sheets when I noticed something interesting and a bit unusual.

The publication had a requirement that the only people who could advertise were MLS members or Board of Realtors members. Being such, you had to put your MLS Property ID with each property advertisement you published. I discovered that nearly 10% of all listings did not have MLS numbers and found the reason to be that MLS was not available in the outline county where the properties were listed.

Two years later after working with a lawyer associate of mine on his Wildcat BBS for legal document exchange we came up with the idea of using a BBS system along with a few dial up nodes to create a mini-MLS in the outline county where MLS was not available.

After tons of research and a bit of trial and error we finally settled on the Excalibur BBS software solution to create our mini MLS. Long story short, the BBS had a dialer client that fit on a single floppy disk making it available for any realtor with a minimum of an i386 PC and a 14.4 modem.

Now, years later, as the expansion of the Big City MLS to that county the former members of our mini MLS have long since moved on. To this day I still have that Excalibur BBS system in archive all setup to work as an MLS and once in a while when working with a real estate client and their ignorant MLS providers I wonder,,, why hasn't anyone tried to compete with MLS's.

Is there some license, law, requirement, situation or mandate that prevents a person from developing an MLS that works for the realtor and the home owner? I mean I'm no super genius but I have often considered developing a PHP / MySQL or even ASP.NET software solution to accommodate this. Everyone I talk to say I'm in over my head. I'd like to know why?

If its technology, then believe me we are well past Excalibur BBS software. Even the age old wild cat legal document exchange for attorneys has graduated to the web with the new site www.easyweblaw.com but the same would be true of a new kind of MLS. Maybe call it RELS or PLS?!

Jared

Hello Jared. I don't believe "technology" is the issue since it shouldn't be that difficult to put together a program. I think the biggest issue would be getting the agents to use the system.

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Mobile Homes For Sale in Arizona ~ Sales Training ~ Mobile Homes For Sale

The reason the MLS will still be the dominant listing service for years to come is...

in·er·tia Pronunciation (-nûrsh) n.

Resistance or disinclination to motion, action, or change.

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Thanks RESALEBROKER for that answer; I guess the only question that would remain would be if there are any legal reasons why a person couldn't use the term MLS. I mean I know of a county in Texas that does not have an MLS. Maybe its because they can't read or write in Texas but they should still have an MLS of some sort.

Jared

P.S.

The only reason why a person couldn't use the term MLS that I can think of would be a trademark infringement.

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Mobile Homes For Sale in Arizona ~ Sales Training ~ Mobile Homes For Sale

If you are trying to create a system to replace the MLS, then you would want to call it something different otherwise consumers wouldn't know the difference.

I think the real reason that the REALTOR-owned MLS systems are still dominant comes down to the fact that the 1,200,000+ member association is based on a code of ethics and the MLS extends that to include an offer of cooperation/compensation and a minimum requirement for the data put into it.

Why would agents use a system that does not provide provide these benefits? How would agents get paid? How are you going to have any responsibility placed on the poster of the listing?

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Aaron

Minneapolis Real Estate | Twin Cities Real Estate | Edina Realty Agent

Aaron, actually my goal isn't to replace the MLS. I have no desire to chase MLS business. I'm just laughing at the industry and its Horse and Buggy methods.

My friend from FNIS developed an alternative to MLS software years and years ago and he did so for small areas as well.

Its no big deal


Jared

php4ever,

We need to get together and discuss some ideas. Read my post about "This has got to stop..."

I have been thinking over the same idea. Why doesn't the realtor community require someone to just develop one big database that stores all listings nationwide. Allow read only access from any IP other than localhost and read/write access to records created by that realtor on only localhost. This makes it so that the read only connection is secure, due to the fact that it is read only, and the read/write account would be secure because it would only be accessible from the localhost, meaning you could tighten security on that connection, using maybe SSL and other security measures.

We should talk.

Now, that's probably going to motivate lots of real estate agents to post their listings on your site, abandoning all loyalty to the largest trade organization in the USA -- one with such a great lobbying effort that they got a special dispensation from Congress so they are not counted as W2'd employees. Every other similar type of job is considered and employee, not an independent contractor.

Laughter and mockery as a positive motivator. I didn't know that would work.

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Terry Light - Professional Contrarian
Office Phone - (949) 305-7995
RealEstateBytes.com
Real Estate Encyclopedia
Author for RealEstate ABC (Creator, too)

Homesurfer; I'm sorry if I offended you, that was not my intent.

I really did not articulate my intent so that's my fault. Let me clarify my perspective so you can better understand my post.

After I ran into this massive stonewall of "I'm right, you're not, deal with it" attitude of a few MLS providers I wondered why this type of business is able to work without being considered a federal crime and it baffles me. In fact after chatting with the support staff of these MLS's I thought for sure I was talking to outsourced labor from India based on the language barrier and I was truly amazed that a Realtor would ever accept that or pay for it. But they do!

Now we compound my motive for this thread by a few situations where I've been under-bid by as much as 90% by guys in nations I've never herd of, later to discover the work they publish for the unsuspecting agent or realtor is in fact stolen scripts or a collection of compiled mish mashed freeware I'm just amazed. I personally have an investment in the software and design tools I use along with the education at an expense that would feed a large family in some nations for 10 years, and I have to compete in such a way as to underbid and devalue my work so far that my work load pushes the project delays out as far as 4 to 12 weeks in some cases. Naturally I've changed strategy recently a little bit with a collection of pre-fab formats and some techniques I picked up working for one of the larger template houses on the web. But thats my point......!

So, frustrated with this I come here to realestatewebmasters.com and post a less than articulate off the cuff question in hopes of garnering a new perspective.

Then I ask myself some questions.
Why would a Realtor accept such treatment or lack of service?
Aren't they in the service industry themselves? (the answer to that is obvious)
Maybe they don't know any better?
Maybe they are so good at Real Estate that technology is something they just believe when its pitched to them regardless of who pitches it?

Na, I don't think many of those are possible, Realtors aren't stupid people. My conclusion is "LACK OF OPTIONS" the MLS has not one single competitor and they've made sure of it. There is no hope, money, or inclination to even begin to replace such a system and maybe its not a good idea to even try.

But!................. If I had the power I'd use it to education those able to understand it that its ok to place demands for quality on the things you invest in. Why settle when you dont have to? There it is...........

These are just my lowly personal perspectives based on a handfull of situations I've dealt with.

I just stand amazed but humored.

Jared