There has been much debate about forced customer registration in order to access listing data on real estate Web sites. That debate might never be settled on an industrywide basis, but is has been settled on the Boston-area Web site of Redfin. Until recently, the Boston-area MLS required Redfin to make all of its users register in order to receive access to the MLS data on Redfin’s site.
As you might expect, this reduced the number of searches on Redfin’s site. The Boston-area MLS has now removed that requirement, and Redfin’s site is now open to all users, regardless of registration. As you might expect, Redfin is happy about this change.
Redfin shares its thoughts in a blog post, and also some interesting statistics that illustrate the impact the registration rule had on its Boston Web site.
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