Syndication: Identifying and Eliminating Innaccurate Listing Data

Trulia just released a whitepaper to serve as a resource to MLSs, their boards of directors and brokers, who are interested in identifying and correcting inaccurate real estate listing data on the Internet.

In the introduction of their whitepaper titled, "Syndication: Identifyinf and Eliminating Inaccurate Listing Data," Trulia says:

The real estate industry is facing a major challenge: the distribution of inaccurate listing data across the Internet. One of the most common complaints about searching for homes online is that many property listings have the wrong price or status.

In February of 2011, with the guidance of our MLS Advisory Board, Trulia prototyped an innovative solution to this problem called Trulia Direct Reference (TDR). This quality assurance program provides MLSs visibility into data inaccuracies online and enables them to communicate this valuable information to their membership. TDR also enables Trulia to determine the quality of different syndication sources and guide MLSs as they shape policies for listing syndication.

In this whitepaper we will cover recent findings gathered through an analysis of more than 430,000 listings Trulia received from syndicators, franchisors, brokerages, agents and MLSs between February 15 and April 15, 2011. This analysis surfaced three key points:

1. Error Rates by Source – Data providers who syndicate data that didn’t originate at the MLS have some of the highest error rates of all sources, with over 21% of the data containing an error in either price or status.
2. Value of Syndication by the MLS – An MLS that proactively syndicates for their membership will ensure a higher level of data accuracy in their area. An MLS that does not syndicate for their membership inadvertently creates an environment that results in a significant increase of disparate data sources resulting in less accurate date online.
3. Opt-in vs. Opt out syndication – Opt-out syndication by the MLS dramatically reduces the proliferation of errant data across the Internet by over 60%.

To download the full whitepaper, please click here.

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