Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Houston Texas MLS leading the way...

In this months REALTOR magazine there is an article about real estate's 25 most influential thought leaders. One of the folks profiled really jumped out at me. It was Bob Hale of the Houston Association of REALTORS, where he is the CEO and President.

First off the Houston area is a very large real estate market. There is no way I am comparing it to the Mohave County area. However I was impressed by the various programs on HAR's website. For one thing the Association has a quality service certificate program, which enables members to voluntarily allow Houston home sellers and buyers to rate their representatives service.

HAR's website also has a search engine for available listings that is top notch. Apparently it is also marketed well and used by many would be buyers before they would contact a Realtor Member.

Now there is this nugget of news flying around (hat tip Greg Swann). HAR just made a deal with Google to have the listing inventory appear on Google Base. I consider this very visionary as you may know. I continue to argue with the Members in my own MLS to offer the very same thing. I think it would benefit sellers and Members here in a much smaller population center even more than it would an area like Houston. Why?? Well I'm sure the budget for the HAR is much larger to produce that fine web presence they have, having big dollars can really help spread the word.

Yet even though HAR has this huge web presence, they have chosen to offer MLS listings on Google Base. I think for as large as HAR is (the second largest local Realtor Association in the USA), they understand that Google is the biggest and the most searched site of all. Now they have partnered with them, smartly, and now the Members of HAR and most importantly the clients of those Realtor Members have extra exposure on the web to help sell their property.

This is the kind of forward thinking that will enhance the MLS and the Realtor Members in the coming years. While our local MLS (WARDEX) has not adopted this policy of partnering with a search site as of yet... I will continue to ask that we do. And it was just yesterday that the local brokers of the KGVAR that elected me to serve on the WARDEX board for the next two years. I will continue to add this item to the agenda every chance I get.

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