Some of that old time real estate religion - with Consumer Facing MLS Sites

30 years ago I remember a very seasoned agent, ( 20 yr in the business) yelling at me for writing an ad on my first listing that stated that the home was located across the street from a prominent grade school. Her statement to me was: "If they know where it is and they don't like the area, they won't call you! You're not supposed to sell THAT house. Your job is to get as many people as you can to call you so you can sell them something else."

I was confused. I thought I was supposed to sell my client's house and if somebody didn't like the area, well then, what's the sense of wasting their time AND mine trying to sell them what they didn't want? I thought the way to establish a long career in real estate was to provide the public with what THEY wanted, not what I wanted them to buy. Well, it looks like I was pretty much on the money. I sold a million dollars the first year I was in the business. (Remember we're talking Omaha, NE; 1980 where the average price was something south of $40,000)

What I would like to know:

• What's the public reaction to Consumer Facing MLS Sites (MLS provides public site).
  • HAR.com (Houston MLS Consumer Facing Web-site) is nationally renowned for it's success.
  • What have the Brokers' reactions been?
• How do you marry Broker Sites without seeming like competition?
  • Who promotes this, i.e. the MLS or everybody?
• What has been the experience of the actual real estate Agent.
  • They are the ones on the front lines.
  • The agents pay nearly $130/month as MLS members on HAR.com.
  • The site generates an average of 17 leads/agent/month

Please let me know what experiences you have had with one of these Consumer Facing MLS Sites.

I'll plant a tree for every response. - I'm a tree hugger so the more the merrier. If you don't believe me go to our site and try and print something out.