Realtors in the US work in a multilisting environment where they can be either a buyers’ agent or a sellers’ agent in the transaction and earn 50 percent of the ~6 percent commission available. To operate in this environment, it is important that realtors share their listings using a MLS (multilisting service). However, is it important for visitors to the realtor’s website to be able to see the listings of all realtors in the market?
In a recent article called Is IDX Really Necessary for Your Website, RISMedia’s Peyman Aleagha argues that a realtor should have an IDX feed on their site to truly meet their buyer’s needs.
Now what is an IDX feed? An IDX feed is a link from the local MLS system to a realtor’s website and via this link, all the properties for sale within a given MLS market can be displayed on the realtor’s website. This means that when a potential buyer finds a realtor’s website, they can search through the listings of the realtor plus all the other listings within the market.
Now some realtors will say that this is a bad thing. They have gone to the effort of attracting a buyer to the site and now they may be excited about a listing that is not from the realtor. This may be true, however as a realtor I would rather receive 50 percent of the commission than lose a customer all together.
Therefore it is important that agent website have an IDX feed and that they present as much information to the visitor to the site as possible. Now what a realtor should do is make sure that their listings are displayed first and then the other listings from the MLS are displayed second.
If you dont have an IDX feed, then you are not maximising your online marketing.
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