Displaying Online Listings Appropriately and Accurately

This article comes to us from the REALTOR.com Lockbox blog. You can view the original article at Lockbox.REALTOR.com.

When real consumers search for homes, they want to see what’s really available. The actual homes that are listed for sale. The homes they have a real opportunity to consider and purchase. Not homes that are off the market, or homes that sold months, or even years ago.

Sellers don’t want to compete with artificially inflated levels of inventory that doesn’t actually exist, and buyers don’t want to browse listings they can’t actually buy.

That’s why REALTOR.com® accurately represents what’s actually happening in the market.

As real estate practitioners, you have rules that you need to play by. When you get listings, you list them as active. When property statuses change, you make the appropriate adjustments. And when properties sell, you take them off the market.

If you don’t there are repercussions. Board violations. Ethical considerations. Professional backlash.

A lot of major national sites don’t play by the same rules you do. The quality of data and attention to what’s actually happening just isn’t there.

REALTOR.com® is the site that actually plays by the same rules brokers and agents do.

• When a property is listed for sale, REALTOR.com® shows it.
• When a property sells and is off the market, REALTOR.com® removes it.
• On REALTOR.com®, only the listing broker’s and listing agent’s branding, logos or photos are allowed to appear on any given listing. Period.

We’re able to do these things because REALTOR.com® has direct connections to over 867 MLS systems across the country. We do these things because we update about 85% of our listings every 15 minutes, and the remainder at least every 24 hours.

And most importantly, we do these things because they’re the right, ethical thing to do.

Sellers know that when their property is displayed on REALTOR.com®, they’re not competing with phantom inventory; the playing field is true, and it’s level. Buyers who search on REALTOR.com® know they’re not going to have to sift through mounds of listings that aren’t available.

Being a real estate professional means doing the right thing for your clients, every time. REALTOR.com® feels the exact same way. That’s why we are ultra-committed to ensuring that listings displayed on our site are true and accurate.

It’s the quality data and the quality service that you and your clients deserve, and REALTOR.com® is proud to be the site that delivers it.