My Super Secret Listing
Quietly, real estate in Western Washington will be less visible. On April 23rd, the Northwest MLS, a listing service representing companies in 19 counties, will stop uploading its property listings to Realtor.com.
Realtor.com is perhaps the closest thing we have to a national listing database. It’s supported by the hundreds of local MLS’ who provide their listing data to Realtor.com.
So, what does this mean for the average home seller? Less visibility and potentially fewer buyers.
What does this mean for the average home buyer? Well, if you’re already in Washington, it probably has very little impact. Most ‘local’ buyers most likely already use the big company websites such as johnlscott.com or windermere.com to facilitate their online searches.
The move by the NWMLS will impact out-of-state buyers and those looking to relocate to the area the most.
However, individual companies may decide to upload their own listings to Realtor.com. As of April 23, John L. Scott will the be largest real estate company in Washington to provide property listings on Realtor.com. Interestingly, Windermere has long chosen to keep their listings off of Realtor.com.
Why did Northwest decide to quit using Realtor.com? It’s the easiest way to raise a property’s profile.
The reason hasn’t been fully been explained, though it does appear to be partly a financial decision. The NWMLS did incur an expense to post its database to Realtor.com. But, I’m not positive it was the only factor.
The Realtor.com domain is owned by the National Association of Realtors, but the actual site is the product of a third-party for-profit company called Move.com.
As far as a property’s profile, with the continually evolving internet, there are now many more options to promote listings such as Yahoo Real Estate, Google Base, Trulia, Oodle, Craigslist and numerous other nationwidel listing sites.
And, while the NWMLS has taken this step, many real estate companies (e.g. John L. Scott, Coldwell Banker) will continue to upload listings to Realtor.com. The only major company not to do so is Windermere.
Coldwell Banker Bain will also continue to provide their listings on Realtor.com as well. Coldwell Banker has also recently entered agreements with Google and Trilia to supply listing feeds as well.