Andrea V. Brambila for Inman News
Texas Realtors won’t provide member info to competing statewide Realtor site, HAR.com
“Last week, in a 23-to-16 vote, TAR’s executive board rejected a motion from HAR that would have had TAR send HAR a data feed, updated daily, of TAR’s membership roster, complete with names and contact information. In the motion HAR said it would have paid any costs associated with providing the feed and promised not to use the list to solicit TAR members to join HAR or its MLS.”
HAR is asking for membership information, not listing data. And they’ll pay all implementation costs. Seems like a no-brainer. Especially cause…
“Nationally, HAR.com was the 19th most visited real estate site in June with 1.32 million unique visitors in June, according to comScore. By contrast, comScore does not track TexasRealEstate.com’s traffic because the site doesn’t meet a threshold of around 50,000 unique visitors per month.”
emphasis mine.
“TAR suggested that, instead of a data feed, TAR could offer HAR a widget that would pull in profile information from TexasRealEstate.com when consumers search for Realtors on HAR.com. The information would appear in framed results, giving TexasRealEstate.com a traffic boost. TAR has not yet developed the suggested widget.”
LOL, “a widget”. The guys at Zillow and Trulia are laughing there asses off right now.
Maybe cut a little slack to TAR. They may be protectionist, but for all the right reasons.
When Danny Frank says “They want to hold the data and handcuff us”, you might ask: handcuff from what?
It’s possible that HAR is not doing this for altruistic reasons. Perhaps it’s purely to build traffic and possibly lure potential “Texas” buyers into becoming “Houston” buyers.
@Robert “Perhaps it’s purely to build traffic and possibly lure potential “Texas” buyers into becoming “Houston” buyers.” – That’s a stretch.
You’re right, it’s purely for altruistic reasons.
@robert touché
One more example to prove that the REALTOR Association is slipping in importance to second place within the industry to the Multiple Listing Services. What is HAR’s public persona? Nowhere on HAR.com do I see anything about code of ethics or the other core values of the Association of REALTORS that us small guys are required to put on our websites.