ListHub, a leading distributor of property listings and provider of performance metrics in real estate, operated by Move, Inc., has announced the expansion of the Real Estate Network (REN) to extend the syndication of property listings to consumer-facing websites and mobile apps operated by Multiple Listing Services (MLSs).
The REN was launched in March 2012 to support the opportunity for content owners to advertise listings on websites operated by real estate franchises and other brokerage network organizations. The REN will now support a new category of publishers comprised of MLSs who operate consumer-facing real estate search websites. The Houston Association of Realtors is the first MLS to participate in the network at launch, and will make its public site, HAR.com, available as a publisher to all brokers in ListHub-supported MLS markets throughout Texas in a beta version beginning at the end this month.
HAR.com has millions of visitors per month viewing listing detail pages 37 million times in January 2014. It is also ranked second among all real estate websites in Texas.
The core function of the REN is to provide listing content owners, such as brokers, with a voluntary option to advertise their listings on industry websites within a specific set of rules which serves as a framework for the value exchange between the owner of the content and the publisher of the website. Franchise REN Rules are available for review here.
The MLS REN websites will utilize a different set of rules and will apply to MLS public websites displaying properties outside their own MLS market. Two key principles include: 1) all leads will be provided directly to the listing agent and only to the listing agent (or other lead recipient expressly indicated by the listing broker), and 2) properties are only authorized for consumer display on the public-facing site and shall not be included in the receiving MLS’s member listings database. Analytics for the traffic and leads generated by the MLS sites will be available for brokers and agents to gain insight into the value provided by MLS website advertising. The MLS REN Rules were formed based on input from a broad set of industry participants, including brokers and MLSs.
“As an MLS, the accuracy and integrity of the content on our website is of top importance, and with ListHub, we know that the content will be 100 percent broker-authorized, and MLS-accurate,” said Bob Hale, president and CEO of the Houston Association of Realtors.“The Real Estate Network satisfies the need for industry websites to compete fairly with third-party websites by offering broad exposure for listings across a wider geography of listing inventory and real estate brokers.”
“HAR.com is the No. 2 real estate website in Texas and REALTOR® listings were viewed 37 million times in January,” said Virginia Cook, CEO of Virginia Cook, REALTOR®. “We are so pleased that we will soon be able to promote all our listings on HAR.com at no cost. We congratulate HAR for always helping our agents grow their business in this digitized 21st Century! Bravo! Bravo from your Dallas fellow Realtors.”
“Although I am an Austin broker, I have had Turnquist Partners, Realtors listings on HAR.com for almost 5 years,” said Michele Turnquist, owner of Turnquist Partners, Realtors. “My leads are free, there are no competitors on my listings and they have been viewed more than 416,000 times. I am a HAR.com fan.”
ListHub plans ongoing evolution of the REN to continue providing choice and opportunity to all ListHub network participants. “The Real Estate Network has always been designed for expansion of ListHub’s industry-friendly framework for managing data exchange between new categories of content owners and content publishers,” said ListHub General Manager Luke Glass. “We are excited to reach a new milestone in this vision with the addition of MLSs as publishers.”
For more information about the MLS REN visit the ListHub website.
