Recently I wrote a small bit of code for some Realtor clients to add to their web sites. It’s designed to be a “drop-in” module for any web page they might want to put it on. Basically it uses the Zillow.com API to give the web site user an estimate of what their home is worth according to Zillow.
It seems that a few real estate companies are using this tool now for their web sites to give their potential customers the information they’re looking for. What’s interesting to me is that the various local Realtor boards feel the need to keep a strangle hold on the data that their members generate in the normal course of business every day.
For instance, the board will instruct their member Realtors that they can print, as in a newspaper, a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) number but they can not print the address of the property at the same time. Likewise, it seems that displaying a list of MLS numbers on a Realtor’s web site is OK but printing the property address right next to it is not OK.
Seems to me that the local Realtor boards are fighting a losing battle.