Opt-Out Clarification

Brendan's blog post on a National MLS got quite a bit of industry reaction. Inman news published the post as a guest perspective. I was asked the other day however if our support of the NAR's position on opt out was our actual belief or just a capitulation to the industry. It deserves some clarification.

We believe in the need of opt out provisions. In general, brokers are not going to opt out of exposure like Google Base, Yahoo Classifieds, Oodle, Trulia, etc. that advertises them and sends the contact back to them. But they need control over the cooperative marketing (IDX, ILD, VOW) with other real estate companies. Brokers shouldn't be forced to cooperate with companies that undermine their business model. The MLSs can't however have a selective-opt out provision, it's anti-competitive (probably). But Brokers can make individual business decisions on whom to cooperate with if they have the technology to do so. Handshake is meant to address that need.



Handshake, Point2, National MLS, Real Estate Brokerage Technology

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