This comment was made to a blog post on the SeattlePI blog about an Open MLS. The first comment was by a Realtor wondering, "Who will pay for an Open MLS?"
The best candidate to both standardize and pay for the Open MLS is Zillow. Soon we Realtors will upload our listings to Zillow, which will then push our listing information out to the MLS's, Realtor.com, all the IDX's and Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Ask and all the other Search Engines.
I've postulated an MLZ, or Multiple Listing Zillow, free to Realtors and paid for as Google search is, through ads. All the MLS's will be standardized on one Internet platform. Home owners, our clients, to whom we owe agency and due diligence, will be better served. How can we Realtors still defend hiding our clients' listing data from the Search Engines on the Invisible Web? David Barry can beat Realtors with a stick or Zillow can lead Realtors with a carrot. It's our choice.
See all the other great blog posts on this week's Blog Carnival for Real Estate hosted by the Property Grunt.
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