Commercial Property
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Realty Times" Five-Year Predictions From 1999 Mostly Right
closings which are managed by the lender to reduce paperwork. Realtors, title companies and others let their outcries be heard. The disappearance of the MLS. What we said then: Within five years, the current MLS system of organizing and distributing listing information will be obsolete. Brokers will take back the responsibility of listing data and choose which Internet portal to place the information. Instead of hundreds of local MLSs, we will have third-party service providers who can organize listing data, tax roll information, schools, crime statistics, home histories, comparables, and search features into concise, on-line reports for consumers. Agents may have more detailed versions of the same reports at a password-protected site and be willing to share that information for a fee. What we say now: We were dead-stinking wrong this time, but that doesn"t mean MLSs are out of danger. Trouble is brewing as brokers blame MLS executives and 100 percent agents for eroding their influence with association boards and MLS executives. Some areas, such as Chicagoland, and parts of metro Detroit are moving their memberships to broker-owned MLSs where the rules, particularly with regard to data-sharing, are more broker-friendly. The technology that will make it all happen - real estate standard code using XML. What we said then: There are organizations working right now to standardize an Internet code for the real estate transaction. If municipal tax and appraisal districts, MLS vendors, Internet service providers, agents and consumers could all communicate in the same environment - the Internet, the need for expensive proprietary systems would disappear. Everyone - the consumer, the agent, and the lender, etc. - will be on the same page. What a wonderful world that would be. What we say now: Shared data could allow MLSs to cooperate, allow all participants to save time on the transaction, which would cut costs for consumers. While vendors and MLSs are adopting the RETS standard, endorsed by the NAR, we"re still far from standardization.Pages: 1 [2]