You know, if the brokers pulling out of syndication were serious about ‘going to the source’ being in the best interest of consumers, they wouldn’t put their listings in MLS. I mean, a dim agent from across town is just as likely to show your listing having found it on the MLS ( and having never seen it) as one who snares a lead from Trulia.
Of course, we at Help-U-Sell have long maintained that every listing does not need to go into MLS and often hold back the most salable listings so that our sellers can save the most money. Our fee stays the same either way. When we do have non-MLS exclusives, syndication is very important. We can give a seller huge exposure on the Internet without going into MLS. Of course, when that competitor agent snares a lead on our exclusive from an aggregator site, we have to tell them that the seller has not agreed to pay their commission . . . but then, that’s kinda fun, isn’t it?
Bravo James- well said. It is funny isn’t it? Because, as I think you pointed out earlier, the first 3rd party aggregator to charge realtors money was realtor.com.