Results on Huntsville MLS Vote are in..... (for sale, real estate)

[Seth Parker]

In the measure to vote whether or not to display addresses in public real estate sites for the Huntsville Metro, the following result was decided.

Of over 3,000 possible voters, only 1,122 voted.

YES: 457
NO: 665

SO...as I figured we will not be able to display addresses in the foreseeable future. This is just ridiculous....people never cease to amaze me.

[deesonic]

So there's some type of ban on showing property addresses on MLS sites here? Hmm... I noticed they never are listed, but I just figured that was the individual agencies making the call. Anywhere else I've lived the addresses were listed.

[ionlife]

Oh well--click on the schools--that at least gives you an idea of the area you're looking in for the house. Sorry it didn't work out!

C

[Seth Parker]

Originally Posted by deesonic

So there's some type of ban on showing property addresses on MLS sites here? Hmm... I noticed they never are listed, but I just figured that was the individual agencies making the call. Anywhere else I've lived the addresses were listed.

Yep, unfortunately. About a year and a half ago, some agents raised a fuss because they thought showing addresses were taking away from their sales calls, so they made a push to get them removed from public sites. It passed. Since then, there's been a couple of votes, and it's denied every time.

I wish we could show them so that the mapping technology could be utilized, but no one wants to listen to me! We are the only MLS I've ever seen that does not publicly display addresses for active homes.

While we're at it, why don't we just take all of the listings off line and go back to the weekly books?

Maybe one day.....

[Huntsville82]

I guess I will have to continue to dog the realtors and ask for each MLS sheet...LOL

[deesonic]

That sucks. Guess I'm glad I'm not house hunting. I bought a house from my father when my wife and I moved back here so I didn't have to hunt really. But anywhere else we've lived, we checked the listings, wrote down addresses and rode around on Saturday getting a feel for different areas before calling an agent about specific ones we wanted to see the inside of. If I were hunting now, not knowing the addresses would certainly slow down our home hunting process needlessly and force us to bug realtors before we're serious about looking. That's silly.

[DvlsAdvc8]

Jeez - absurd. I'm always irritated when realtors don't put an address on an online listing. Thankfully, its uncommon here in DC.

No wonder my wife and I had trouble finding houses when we were surveying Huntsville a few weeks ago.

I absolutely love GIS solutions for real estate - there are a couple sites like trulia.com that will give you a map showing homes for sale, as well as recent home sales and prices. This gives you a great perception of what a house you're interested in is worth, not to mention the ability to quickly find neighborhoods in your price range.

[kapilville]

For your MLS, is there a distinction between the different types of MLS data feeds where one may contain the address data but the other does not?

Typically there is the "IDX" data which does not include address information, does not contain 100% of the listing in the MLS and can be shown to the public without any restriction or registration. This is generally the type of data you see on Realtor.com and others.

Then there is the "VOW" data which contains the entire MLS data set, and includes all property attributes including addresses but requires that the viewer be registered by the broker who is disclosing the listing information. The idea being that there should be the same level of "virtual" relationship between client and Realtor as there would be in an 'office-based' one.

Does your MLS offer both types of data?

By the way, regardless of the what your local MLS and Realtor association decides, the recent agreement reached between NAR and the DoJ may preempt list display and sharing rules....so don't worry, better days are ahead.

[kapilville]

Originally Posted by DvlsAdvc8

there are a couple sites

If you haven't yet, check out www.PropertyMaps.com Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Condos for Sale ...it blows away Trulia and the like. I don't think Huntsville or even Alabama are on the map yet...but hopefully soon.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by kapilville

If you haven't yet, check out Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Condos for Sale | PropertyMaps Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Condos for Sale ...it blows away Trulia and the like. I don't think Huntsville or even Alabama are on the map yet...but hopefully soon.

I just checked it out. It didn't have my home for sale in Colorado. Trulia did.