Shiny New Sites

They are all shiny. However the first 2 will not garner many leads since users are not required to submit their contact info to register for mls access which is the whole point of an IDX on a website...lead generation. This also cheapens the access to MLS and is having a negative effect on the industry and its long term potential is scary to think about....Feel free to pass this on them to assist their decision making on the arrangement of their website. I have 4-11 registrations a day with contact info. Usually it is correct info. jay

Thanks for the feed-back... I totally agree with you that registration should be required for lead generation purposes. However, the decision about registration requirements rests with our clients and in both cases you mention, the client has elected not to make it a requirement at this time. Perhaps they'll change their minds further down the road... Out of curiosity, why do you feel that IDX's w/o registration requirements are having a negative effect on the industry? And why does it matter if access to the MLS is being cheapened? I'm asking out of genuine interest...

Leif, Nice work. The pictures for Paul Francis look familiar. . . but that's okay, we love you anyway. As far as registration goes, our site does not require registration, and we are still receiving registrations. My only beef against registration is that anyone can go to my association's MLS site and get all the information without registration. If I require it, those that don't want to register will go someplace else. It also varies widely by market area. In some areas, registration is much more widespread and accepted, in other areas, not so much.

Right on cue, I came across this today: http://blog.inman.com/inmanblog/2007/03/hello_my_name_i.html

Daniel, thanks for the article. The debate, I see, rages on ;-) I think that if you're not going to require registration, then an option might be to display your contact info very prominently next to each listing. Just a thought...

The realtors in your area are royally being screwed by your own MLS--what an ironic travesty. The realtos keep the MLS in business with listings and the MLS gives it away as if they were a brokerage. THAT IS COMPLETELY WRONG. PUBLIC SHOULD HAVE TO GET THE INFO FROM A BROKERAGE. All you have their is your MLS being a glorified CRAIGSLIST so that you are not necesssary at all. You should get this to some managing brokers who should network/conference on changing the rules....

Thanks for all of the hard work Leif! As for being forced to register... it's a requirement for our MLS to view all listings and to obtain more information then not signing in. There are services that don't force you to register, but then you don't get to see everything for sale.

P.S... I'd require registration anyways due to a past experience with another site in a market that did not require registration.

I usually hate Green, but I really like the Scott Scott site (Hate the name though) - Did you do the quicksearch on the main page leifster?

yep - that was me.

This is my expanded two cents on the issue: http://realestatezebra.com/this-little-light-of-mine As far as my relevancy is concerned. . .I am necessary because of my skills in client representation. It has very little to do with the information I have access to through the MLS. That information is simply a component. If I view my purpose as solely that of providing access to the MLS, my days in this profession are numbered.

Thanks for great new web, Leif. Wish I would have done this 2 years ago My idx does require registration after 2 teaser detail page views, so, jseville, I am trying to capture leads, thanks for your thoughts here. My website url prescottscott.com at one time was put up as a flame web against me by a former coworker (very devastating to endure such slander) and I bought the domain after it expired. People I mentioned it to thought it to be a clever domain name, so I went with it. Why do you hate the url name, Morgan? I would like to know. Is it bad SEO? Really, I am curious and I will take your criticism of my branding in good faith without judgment or resentment.

Daniel, "For those who don’t, I’m certainly not going to try and extort information from them." For everybody's information concerning registration... some MLS's require registration for users to view detailed information. There are several third party sites that furnish free searches and the reasons they provide this are long and detailed and more appropriate for other debates. However, before debating on the general registration issue to view homes and comparing it to extorting information from the user, you need to point out that for your area registration is not required and stay away from the generalization that for all areas it is the providers choice. It gives the impression that the MLS is the same service everywhere in the United States which we obviously know that it is not but general consumers do not know that. (Much like the general population does not know the difference between a real estate agent and a REALTOR.) A user who may happen to read your blog and then comes to visit our site (or other sites in Chicago for that matter) might be under the impression that we are attempting to "extort information from them" because we have a service that provides more detailed and thorough information then non registration sites. For our MLS in Chicago... providing a more thorough and detailed search requires registration by our MLS for users wishing to view all properties available for sale on our MLS. Real Estate sites in the Chicago area that do not require registration are not showing all of the properties available for sale.... period. (Unless of course they are in violation of the rules.) We analyzed several services including services offered by the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois and for a user experience, we think that the service we chose is by far a better service due to the information provided once a user registers. The owners of the service are locally based in Chicago and know the complex requirements.