CHRISTOPHER COY
Public ‘hungry’ for info

Buyers searching for a new home today can consult various real estate Web sites to see what properties are available for sale. But an attempt by the nation’s leading Realtor trade association to create a policy governing the use of home listing data online has prompted an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and shaken up many in the industry.

The controversy, however, hasn’t seemed to affect local real estate brokers because several of the largest multiple listing services in Massachusetts never implemented the National Association of Realtors’ virtual office Web site, or VOW, policy, which is at the center of the debate. VOWs enable real estate brokers to take home listing data from a multiple listing service and make it available to consumers visiting their company’s Web site.

The Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors, which operates its own multiple listing service, or MLS, never developed a VOW policy using NAR’s guidelines and therefore never placed any constraints or restrictions to participants of the MLS. Instead, members of the Cape MLS have been sharing property listings freely.

“I think we were prudent to take the wait-and-see approach,” said Annie Blatz, a member of the association’s board of directors and branch executive of Kinlin Grover GMAC Real Estate’s Brewster and Yarmouthport offices.

Realtors in most parts of Massachusetts belong to MLS Property Information Network, or MLS PIN, which is not run by a Realtor board. MLS PIN implemented its own version of a VOW policy three years ago.

“We are not chartered by NAR therefore we’re not subject to their rules and regulations,” said Kathleen Condon, MLS PIN’s president and chief executive office.

The Justice Department began reviewing NAR’s VOW policy months after it was unveiled. As a result, NAR delayed implementing the policy until July 1 of this year. However, after media reports surfaced two weeks ago that the Justice Department was considering filing a lawsuit against the association alleging that its VOW policy would illegally restrict discounting of sales commissions and put online competitors at a disadvantage, NAR again delayed implementing its policy.

According to the trade group, NAR leaders are currently working with the department to resolve the dispute and develop a new policy.

The main sticking point is a part of the VOW policy that would enable real estate companies and brokers that belong to local multiple listing services to withhold listings from specific Web sites. Critics of the policy, including discount brokerage firms, argue that such an “opt-out” feature would permit larger real estate companies to block competitors who do not offer the traditional full-service, full-commission model from featuring listings online.

Unlike the NAR VOW policy, MLS PIN, which serves more than 27,000 real estate professionals in New England, does not allow the selective “opt out” for real estate brokers, according to Condon. Either real estate brokers agree to share their listings with all MLS PIN members or they agree to withhold them entirely and therefore can’t post listings on their own company’s virtual office Web sites.

Web site operators following MLS PIN’s policy must confirm they are sharing listing data with legitimate prospective buyers. Many brokers do that by requiring consumers to register with the real estate office and enter their housing search criteria. In addition, real estate firms must only include the listings in communities that they are willing and able to show to the consumer.

The system seems to be working well and there hasn’t been a push from members to change the policy to allow for the selective opt out, said Carolyn Chodat, a Medway real estate broker and director of MLS PIN.

Chodat, broker-owner of Classic Properties, said allowing real estate brokers to select which Web sites can include their company’s listings could “diminish some of the power of the MLS system.”

“The whole purpose of the MLS is cooperation,” Chodat said.

Wait and See

Listing services that are run by Realtor associations and chartered by NAR are supposed to implement the policies and rules and regulations set forth by the national association. But since the policy implementation date was delayed, Realtor groups also have been able to postpone instituting NAR’s VOW policy.

Blatz said directors of the Cape association decided they wouldn’t adopt a local policy because they anticipated NAR’s VOW policy, which was unveiled two years ago, would be “highly debated” and delayed.

“It doesn’t surprise me that it’s delayed again,” she said.

On Cape Cod, a lot of companies have had VOWs in place for as many as three to four years.

“It’s not creating tension or creating difficulties in the marketplace,” said Blatz, of Kinlin Grover GMAC, who believes attempts to regulate the use of listings online are going to be difficult. “It [VOWs] enables every company the opportunity to have an expansive Web site and attract customers to their site. It’s the office without walls.”

Consumers who register on Kinlin Grover’s Web site by providing their name, e-mail address and search criteria can get information about properties listed for sale on the Cape. Consumers who don’t wish to register can get more limited information about properties that are available.

Christopher Coy, one of the brokers of Realty Executives New England in Hyannis, said “the public is hungry for information” and visits sites that can provide the data they’re seeking.

“The public is traveling to a Web site for high-quality information about properties. They are not traveling to the Web site necessarily to find a Realtor to work with,” Coy said.

Coy’s company hired a third-party contractor more than two years ago that offers a product which puts MLS data on the firm’s Web site. So far, Coy, who is treasurer of the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors, has not seen any movement from local Realtors to create a VOW policy.

“I’m not sure you can place guidelines or restrictions on a VOW,” he said.

Linda Collins, broker-owner of At the Cape Properties in Orleans, agrees with Blatz and Coy that the current system has been effective.

“We’ve been very cooperative,” Collins said. “Everyone has the main goal, which is to serve the client.”

Unlike the Cape MLS, the Southeastern Massachusetts Multiple Listing Service, which is operated by the Greater New Bedford Association of Realtors, incorporated NAR’s VOW policy into its bylaws at NAR’s suggestion. But Donna Uriano, executive vice president of the Greater New Bedford Association of Realtors, said the policy is “not being used at this time” because it was never formally implemented by NAR.

Uriano said once NAR’s policy becomes effective, the MLS will adopt it. “Whatever guidelines they tell us to follow, we will follow,” she said.

The Berkshire County Board of Realtors, which also has its own MLS, doesn’t have a VOW policy, according to Sandra Carroll, the board’s chief executive officer. “We are waiting for the NAR decision,” she said.

Like Realtors in the Greater New Bedford area, real estate practitioners in the Berkshires are participating in what’s known as Internet Data Exchange, which enables brokers to share more limited property listing information online with consumers who visit virtual office Web sites.

While local multiple listings services are waiting for the outcome of the VOW controversy, NAR leaders continue to back the policy they crafted and say they are willing to defend it in court if an agreement with the government can’t be reached. The association now has postponed implementing the policy until Jan. 1, 2006.

“We hope we can find a common ground with the Justice Department but we want to make it absolutely clear that we are reserving the right to defend our policy,” NAR President Al Mansell said recently.

Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.