Primary marketSurvey Results: How Important Is Broker Reciprocity To Your Business?
The results are in for the second monthly Mr. Internet/Realty Times survey, featured on Agent News. Four hundred and sixty five respondents, about a 13 percent increase over last month"s responses, answered questions about Broker Reciprocity and how important real estate professionals think it will be to their businesses.
"More people are interested in responding and seeing what others have to say," observes Michael Russer, aka Mr. Internet.
"The NAR has done a good job publicizing its IDX policy (Internet Data Display) as most brokers and agents (66 percent ) who answered the Mr. Internet/Realty Times survey on broker reciprocity knew the correct definition," says Blanche Evans, publisher of Agent News. "I think this set the tone for interesting results for the rest of the survey."
Broker Reciprocity, the agreement between brokers allowing them to post their MLS listings on each other"s Web sites, is gaining more interest among industry watchers the closer it gets to January 2002. That"s the National Association of Realtors" deadline to MLS organizations to have their systems in place which will enable brokers to publicly display MLS listings on their personal Web sites.
Slightly over half of respondents (52 percent) said they already have Broker Reciprocity in their areas. Fifty-five percent said they have Broker Reciprocity on their Web sites.
With plenty of license from the NAR, MLSs can implement broker reciprocity a number of ways, but according to the results of the survey, most respondents didn"t know the significance of being able to opt in and opt out.
"It"s important," says Evans. "You always have greater participation if participants are required to opt out than opt in. This could mean that many MLSs aren"t up and running with BR yet, and therefore don"t know what options to offer to members. Agents are reporting that where they can opt-in, there are few brokers sharing listings."
Economic implications?
Broker reciprocity could have far-reaching economic implications for the real estate industry, particularly with regard to how brokers and agents spend their money to promote their listings.
Over 50 of 120 respondents reported paying $0 to have Broker Reciprocity listings on their Web sites. A number were unsure if they were paying separately or as part of a package for this service.
For those who do not have Broker Reciprocity listings, over 47 percent were unsure what they would be willing to pay to have them. Similarly, 38 percent did not know what they would pay to have a custom version of Broker Reciprocity on their Web sites. "This shows that many agents may feel out of touch with the costs of technology," says Evans. "They could be vulnerable to higher fees without some competition from vendors. Vendors, including MLSs, need to be able to provide this service at an affordable rate, yet a rate that will enable them to stay in business."
"I thought that question 10 was interesting and may have some impact on that - who should be allowed to provide it? It shows that the industry is still very MLS-centric," says Russer. "This question allowed them to answer any number of ways and 85 percent voted for the MLS. That shows that the industry is less tolerant of vendors outside the MLS, and we can only speculate as to why. Maybe they are used to working with the MLS."
"The industry is still highly entrenched. A year from now, let"s see if that has changed," says Russer.
According to question 11, MLSs are still approaching the NAR deadline, but many aren"t communicating with members where they stand. "Forty-one percent had no idea when their MLS will be ready!" observes Russer. "That reflects the industry is aware of this issue but there are still a lot of unknowns. I don"t know why the MLSs doing a better job communicating this."
Does Broker Reciprocity create an unfair advantage? Of question 13, Russer notes," I would have expected a higher number to say "yes," because the industry tends to be fear-driven and this is saying something else. They are saying the opportunity in using this information on their own site is greater than their fear that someone else has that opportunity. Eighty-seven percent feel that it is important to their business and that is significant. I think that is a healthy sign for the industry. It shows that they are more collaborative."
"That"s the spirit in which Broker Reciprocity was conceived," says Evans.
Editor"s note: Twenty people responded with the correct answer to the challenge question - "Who is the online Realtor who was recently interviewed by Business Week and Kiplinger Magazines?" Realtor Judy McCutchin was the interviewee. The winner of the challenge question was selected using a random number gneerator on an Excel spreadsheet. Congratulations to Sean Dunn ABR, RECS. Sean has won a copy of Michael Russer"s Internet marketing manual, e-POWER, and a year"s free subscription to the Real Estate Update, a newsletter format lead generation/retention/capture tool.
Results of the survey are here.