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October 07, 2005
How far should consumer access to real estate data go?
How far should access to real estate data go in an e-commerce era when consumers expect access and transparency? Web 2.0 functionality is already opening up new ways for consumers to manipulate real estate data to inform their own homebuying decisions. For example, The Real Estate Cafe's clients are using MLS data we provide them to create personalized Google Maps to value properties and make offers in ways that make HousingMaps.com look simplistic. Should the real estate industry try to anticipate those needs and provide solutions, or should consumers be free to access housing data and innovate as they please? Here's what one future-oriented real estate consumer advocated proposed as the first article of a Real Estate Consumer Bill of Rights way back in 1999. How would you update it for 2005 and beyond?
DRAFT REAL ESTATE CONSUMER BILL OF RIGHTS
Article 1. Right of information access without limitation
No consumer should be denied access to information sources just because that individual is not a real estate professional or because the real estate professional attempts to use membership in a trade association or a listing service as a condition of “representation”. To the extent information may be available, its access should not be denied except to lawfully protect the adverse party only.
As written in an earlier blog post entitled, Cell phone bill of rights? Why not real estate?, The Real Estate Cafe will:
1. Use this blog to release one item a day over ten days as a starting point for a draft Real Estate Consumer Bill of Rights;
2. If there is sufficient interest, we'll create a wiki and invite other real estate consumer advocates to to help create the draft Real Estate Consumer Bill of Rights;
3. If there is sufficient interest, invite consumers to comment, edit, or add items to the draft Real Estate Consumer Bill of Rights; and
4. If our efforts are credible enough, we'll submit the draft Real Estate Consumer Bill of Rights as written testimony at the upcoming hearing on anti-competitive practices in the residential real estate industry, cosponsored by the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission in Washington, DC on October 25, 2005.
We invite your comments online or by calling us at 617-876-2117 to leave a one to three minute sound bite (which we may include in an upcoming podcast).
Bill Wendel | 04:59 PM in Real Estate Consumer Bill of Rights | Permalink
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This proposed article may already be in your lineup for the "Real Estate Consumer Bill of Rights", but for buyers...
- Right to Inspect -- a qualified buyer should have the right to thoroughly inspect, or require the inspection of, any property before binding themselves unequivocally to purchase that property.
That may or may not entail the loss of earnest money, but I would suggest NOT. That way a buyer is protected against misrepresentations or lack of disclosure of major faults in the property.
Posted by: Robert Creek | Oct 12, 2005 8:30:38 PM
Robert,
Thanks for nominating an appropriate item for a homebuyer bill of rights, the right to an inspection. As you suggest, I do believe it will be addressed in the top 10 items. If not, it's not too early for you and other readers to begin brainstorming. I'd rather error on the side of over-inclusion that exclusion.
Which brings me to the point, I'd love to feedback on. It's related both to this first article -- the right for consumers to access real estate information -- and your post today on your own site. To paraphrase the title of John Stossel's column today,
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/JohnStossel/2005/10/12/170929.html
should consumers be free to access all of the listings on the market, whether listed by a traditional agent, a for sale by owner vendor, or discount agent through a single search? (Don't current MLS guidelines currently prohibit comingling FSBO listings with broker listed properties?)
Haven't you written about some innovative new new business models that aggregating listing from a variety of sources possible? Having been involved in a start-up in 2000 that had similar functionality, I know that the current fragmented search process is because of politics not technology. Still, today as an exhibitor at a technology fair, I heard REALTORS complain about the number of MLS's and data sources they have to access to assemble a comprehensive list of what's for sale for their buyer clients.
So my question, should consumer (and agents ) have the right to access all listings from a single search, or will the ability deliver that much desired consumer experience simply be one of the ways new business models, like http://www.propertyshark.com, compete with existing MLS searches?
As housing markets across the country soften, it will be increasingly important for buyers to access all listings to assess what is really happening in the market and what properties are really worth.
Posted by: RealEstateCafe | Oct 13, 2005 1:13:41 AM
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