I just finished reading The WAV Group’s “Terms of Listing Syndication to Third Party Websites”. Not exactly the morning newspaper, but some of the content was more shocking than a local hit and run. In fact “hit and run” is exactly how to describe some of terms of these websites.
I’m not sure if MLS providers and brokers are even aware of most of this stuff.
Here’s the link:
I wish we would have had the bandwidth to look at more of the sites, but the differences between the ones that we looked at spanned the landscape from being highly protective of broker data (REALTOR.com) to not protective of broker data at all (VAST.com).
I think that most brokers consider listing syndication a form of advertising, but in many cases, brokers are not paying attention to the fine print well enough to recognize that they are extending listing data rights to a third party and taking on liability for how third parties re-purpose the data.