Two MLS’s First to Adopt Realtors Property Resource
Last year, as a director of the California Association of Realtors, I attended an information session about the National Association of Realtors (NAR) “Realtors Property Resource” (RPR). I walked away impressed with the scope and functionality of the program, begun in 2009 at a projected cost of twenty to twenty-five million dollars. Approximately 147 million records, 100 million of them residential, will be incorporated into this system.
RPR is a giant database of all real estate properties in the U.S., whether they are for sale or not. It includes “public records, details of prior transactions, zoning restrictions, school district data and transfer tax information,” according to NAR.
Also provided will be easements, property histories, default data, environmental data, market activity reports and “demographic and psychographic lifestyle information” showing community trends. According to NAR, this will allow Realtors to save substantial time and effort doing research while providing valuable information that can be used to help their buyers and sellers.
Last week, this project was implemented by a Multiple Listing Service in California and one in Michigan. Many MLS’s from all over the nation have decided to join. Others, however, are cautious and circumspect about how their MLS data will be used and whether the quid-pro-quo of MLS data in exchange for RPR (without any financial compensation to participating MLS’s) is a fair one.
Only Realtors, defined as members of NAR, will have access to this network (in California, approximately one of three licensees is a Realtor). It will not be found on consumer web sites. Subscribers of MLS’s that do not join RPR will still be able to utilize the public records section, although their data will be less rich and, likely, less useful.
At no cost for Realtors to join and take advantage of this database, this sounds too good to be true. There are, however, potential flies in the ointment. One is how the MLS data will be used and how much profit will eventually be made by NAR on this product.
The plan is for RPR to package some of the information and sell it to lenders and other large institutions. A “Realtor Valuation Model” is projected to be significantly more efficient than valuation models found on some popular real estate sites, which are often woefully inaccurate. It will include default and MLS data unavailable to these other sites.
Some long-time Realtors and industry observers, including many who admire the product, look to history and question what will happen to RPR in the future. Although it will begin with no paid advertisements, will NAR change that in the future?
Will NAR eventually sell the company to a third party and retain only a small, or no, ownership interest, as happened with Realtor.com? There is also apprehension about the use of “sold” data and how that might impact appraisers and appraisals and the MLS system itself.
NAR had a long-running battle with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over Multiple Listing Service uses and rules. That was settled not long ago, but there are those who worry about eventual DOJ action against NAR relating to RPR.
These and other concerns remain. Regardless, RPR is here and it will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.