http://www.inman.com/news/2008/05/21/debate-flares-over-mls-in-web-site-urls

http://www.inman.com/news/2008/05/21/debate-flares-over-mls-in-web-site-urls

Jim, this would be against another NAR guideline. We are forbidden from badmouthing another agent. However, simply stating that Mr. Harmond is the one who filed the complaint is permissible.

@Brain Piedmonet Says:
March 16th, 2008 at 11:41 am
If you guys are not willing to play by the rules, simply renounce your National Association of REALTORS membership. Either play by the rules or be punished.

Brain, NAR is nothing without us. We Are NAR! When our elected officials make a mistake or push through a ruling that is against the majority opinion, we have a Duty to Fight and Change it. After all, this is still the USA!

If you are against us, make sure you earn enough money to pay dearly to those Non Realtors and Non Real Estate companies for all the leads that you help generate. That is what this ruling is doing.

The proposed changes can be found at this page on realtor.org:

http://www.realtor.org/natmeet.nsf/pages/Jennife2008AgendaFB916?OpenDocument

This is taken from that document:

“The issue was whether the phrase “. . .the fact remained that a real–estate related URL that included the letters MLS would lead reasonable consumers to conclude that the website would an MLS’s, and not a broker’s website” is too broad, and whether that phrase would require hearing panels to find a violation of Article 12 any time a REALTOR’s URL uses “MLS” or “multiple listing service”, irrespective of whether the URL otherwise presents a true picture.

It was agreed that was not the Committee’s intent, but the Subcommittee also felt the words in the current case have potential to be read that way.”

It is clear from this document that the NAR did not intend case 12#20 to be used as a blanket prohibition of the use of MLS in a REALTORS URL.

The case is to be used by an ethics panel as a guideline in helping them determine if a REATOR’s site is deceptive and is intended to mislead the public into thinking that have access to the “official” MLS for that area.

The inclusion of disclaimers, the brokers contact information, pictures of the REALTOR themselves, content on the page to show that the REALTOR is an active REALTOR providing a service to the public etc, are all elements of the site that an ethics panel should consider in determining wether a site is designed to be intentionally deceptive and is attempting to pass itself off as the “official” local MLS board or is just another REALTOR controlled website providing a useful service for the public and source of business for that REALTOR.

Case 12#20 is only to be used a guideline by the ethics panel so as long as a the REALTORS site is presenting an honest and truthful picture there should not be a problem with a REALTOR being found to not have violated article 12 of the code of ethics.

Any realtor that currently has MLS in his or her URL should not just give up their domain if they are threatened with an ethics violation from another realtor. They should carefully re-examine their site and make sure it does present a true picture and is not deceptive or misleading.

http://www.NashvillesMLS.com has disclaimers, non deceptive content, brokerage contact information, is a REALTOR controlled website and I personally believe it does present a “true picture” to the home buying public.

I do believe the NAR is starting to listen to it’s members and sense will prevail so that a term used by the general public, in association with buying a home ie “search the MLS”, will be something that a REALTOR can still use and not have to give that right away to 3rd party company who will then sell the real estate leads back to the REALTORS that helped popularize the term MLS.

Is there any plans to present this petition and comments to the Professional Standards Committee that came up with the new rules???

Our board recently sent a letter requesting us to review a letter from our state association and showed ONE case where a board prohibited a broker’s use of the name MLS based on article 12. We are currently working on new URL names, but we will utilize the court system if necessary to challenge any rediculous local or state decision to prevent or inhibit the use of our major investment in dollars and marketing.

If a class action lawsuit is filed, we will participate to maintain our website operations because of principal. Every company could have utilized the word MLS, if they chose to.

Our site opened in the 1996 era, is
when this should have been discussed, not ten years later. If NAR chooses to outlaw the use of MLS, we will abide as long as all the other MLS sites are closed. Please advise any updates to Patrick@orrhomes.com! Thank you!

Can the NAR and/or its board be held accountable to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for prohibiting what is a legal trade practice.

If they believed it was unethical, the NAR should have done something about it when the internet was invented or earlier.

Can Area Boards be held accountable to the FTC if they try to prevent the realtor’s from using the MLS on websites / advertising?

I am having my sites transferred to another individual who has an LLC with links to my site.
Then the MLS can be advertised without the broker’s name, phone, etc.

The NAR will lose control if they don’t let Realtors use the MLS on their websites…because advertising rules relating to Brokers, phone numbers and names have to be the same size…If Realtors transfer names to other individuals / companies….The MLS can be advertised without any compliance if the individual is not a realtor.