ListHub, the popular listing distribution platform operated by Move Inc., is rolling out a one-hour course to help multiple listing services educate their members about the finer points of real estate syndication.
The free “WiseAdvertise” course, which will be offered by ListHub to brokers and agents through their MLSs, will include six modules that cover syndication issues ranging from understanding listing duplication and trumping rules to lead routing and syndication choices.
ListHub currently helps more than 465 MLSs send their listings to 125 publisher websites, including Zillow, Trulia, realtor.com and Homes.com.
The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, which serves more than 11,000 members, will be the first MLS to offer the course, and 10 others have signed on. GLVAR will require all of its 1,400 broker members to take the course.
The 11 MLSs that have signed up for “WiseAdvertise” are:
- Central Mississippi MLS Inc. (Jackson, Mississippi)
- Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina)
- Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors Inc. (Las Vegas)
- Information and Real Estate Services LLC (Loveland, Colorado)
- Middlesex County Multiple Listing System Inc. (Fords, New Jersey)
- MLSListings Inc. (Sunnyvale, California)
- Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service Inc. (Jacksonville, Florida)
- Southwestern Illinois Regional MLS Inc. (Belleville, Illinois)
- Triangle MLS Inc. (Cary, North Carolina)
- Wasatch Front Regional MLS (Sandy, Utah)
- Western New York Real Estate Information Services (Buffalo, New York)
“WiseAdvertise helps MLSs provide greater service and support to their membership, and helps assure that brokers have the best and most accurate information about their listing advertising options, protections and analytics to optimize their business and best serve their clients,” said ListHub General Manager Celeste Starchild in a statement.
The course includes a Web-based option that includes six segments with a six-minute video in each, surveys and quizzes, Starchild told Inman News.
Module 3, for example, covers trumping and duplication issues around listings on portals, Starchild said. Many brokers and agents don’t understand how sites decide which listing to display if they receive the same info from two different sources, she said.
The course was designed, in part, to help brokers and agents understand these nuances of syndication, Starchild said.
MLSs can also choose to bring a ListHub trainer out for on-site instruction by sharing the cost with ListHub, Starchild said.
ListHub designed the course with the help of several MLS partners because a handful of MLSs reached out to say that their members didn’t fully understand some important elements of syndicating their listings to sites across the Web, Starchild said.
The course can be customized to each MLS and include the MLS’ branding. MLSs who would like to participate begin by sending out a survey supplied by ListHub to gauge their memberships’ understandings and attitudes toward syndication, Starchild said.
Next, ListHub helps administer the course to the MLS’ members and shares the results with the MLS.
A follow-up survey after the course measures the effectiveness of the program and helps determine next steps.
The titles of the six modules in the course are: Online Listing Accuracy, Data Protections, Duplication and Trumping, Make Smart Syndication Decisions, Managing and Maximizing Online Traffic, and Importance of Reports and Analytics.
“ListHub’s WiseAdvertise will provide critical knowledge to our brokers to enable them to best control and protect their listing data,” said David Brownell, GLVAR board member and chair of its presidential syndication advisory group, in a statement.
Some MLSs have recently eschewed sending a feed to ListHub, including the Austin (Texas) Board of Realtors, North Alabama MLS and Wilmington (North Carolina) Regional Association of Realtors. Instead, they prompt their member brokers to handle syndication on their own.
Zillow and Trulia, which currently get a good chunk of their listings from ListHub and another syndication platform, Point2, have been seeking direct feeds from brokers and MLSs. They are offering incentives like branding and prominent display of listing agent display to brokers and MLSs that provide direct feeds.
