The list of homes for sale displayed by real estate brokers on their websites can now be indexed by Google and other search engines under a new policy released by the National Association of Realtors.
According to NAR, which recently held its annual conference in San Diego, it made changes to its Internet Data Exchange rules so real estate agents and brokers can allow Internet search engines to index their website listings.
The changes in the IDX policy include the reversal of rules requiring real estate agents participating in Multiple Listing Services to protect real estate listings from being copied or duplicated by other websites. The new rules now allow brokers to enable Google and other search engines to collect information from their websites so that online searches would become faster and more applicable for prospective real estate buyers looking for homes to buy on the Internet.
The new policy however still prohibits real estate brokers from using MLS data for purposes other than those which were previously agreed upon with NAR and the MLS.
NAR had to craft the changes after brokers protested a ruling from NAR staff in March interpreting search engine indexing as website scraping or copying of list of homes for sale.
Realtors explained that it is crucial for them to allow Google and other search engines to index authorized IDX websites so that their listings would show up high in search engine results. Paula Henry, member of the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors, is among agents displaying listings on her search-engine-optimized website.
NAR also revised the IDX policy so that home sellers can disable web site features such as third-party comments and automated valuations or links to these features. The sites however are allowed to notify users that these features are disabled due to requests from the sellers.
Other IDC policy changes include the reduction of the number of days for downloading and refreshing of MLS data from 7 days to 3 days and the correction or removal of factual errors such as wrong phone numbers and email addresses.
At the conference, Errol Samuelson of Move Inc. also announced significant improvements in the search capabilities of the NAR sales site. These include a predictive search capability that gives suggestions while users type in geographic places in the search tab and an improved search filtering feature that helps users search a list of homes for sale more easily and more quickly.
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