Another Rant on the Mohave County MLS Board
May 3rd, 2008This is a continuation of my previous two posts on the Mohave MLS.
This is the direct quote from the site I was using regarding their removal of addresses, locations, and directions per the Havasu/Kingman MLS:
“This policy will be enforced for all internet-based displays of listings in this market (addresses of properties for sale are not allowed on the internet in Lake Havasu).”
This is the reply when I questioned why pictures were also not displayed. Apparently if pictures were allowed, those pesky buyers could just drive around all through the city and find the house for sale.
“But this change affects all web site that show listed properties in our county. Unless a buyers goes to the MLS website they won’t be able to view any pictures or addresses. “
Actually this is wrong though. Even the public MLS site does not have addresses. They have pictures, but no addresses. The “public” ie “buyers” are not to be trusted with this info apparently.
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Now for the past two weeks I have been emailing back and forth to a realtor in Kingman that came unglued because I made comments about the mls “board”. He felt I was out of line. I’ve decided to put up some of my replies to his emails. I’ve only put my replies, you’ll have to guess at his statements. And if you doze off during this very long post, I’ll understand. But I did cut out at least half of my answers and all of his.……………
I think they’ve made it pretty clear that no one is allowed to post addresses on the internet in this county. Which makes Mohave stand out against 99% of the rest of the country, including California, Nevada and the rest of Arizona. All of which not only have addresses on realtor.com, but on various other web sites. I guess they want to sell houses, strange concept.
That is what makes me furious and tells me that your head honchos feel their mls info is so secret that no one should be able to use it to buy or sell a house. And they will fight having any info on the internet regardless of how difficult that makes it for buyers in the area. If that isn’t egotistical, I don’t know what to call it. I could call it tyranny I guess, does that suit you better?
Your board has made it impossible to even find out what area a house is in, let alone the address. And apparently they could care less , they have no concern about what buyers or sellers want, only what they think is best for them.
That is what makes me furious and tells me that your head honchos feel their mls info is so secret that no one should be able to use it to buy or sell a house. And they will fight having any info on the internet regardless of how difficult that makes it for buyers in the area. If that isn’t egotistical, I don’t know what to call it. I could call it tyranny I guess, does that suit you better?
Your board has made it impossible to even find out what area a house is in, let alone the address. And apparently they could care less , they have no concern about what buyers or sellers want, only what they think is best for them.
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I was just as furious when they took the addresses out of realtor.com in 2006. Before they did that I could look each day and if I saw something interesting, I could email the specific realtor and ask questions. It didn’t require me to bother anyone every day with questions. Just like I still can in 99% of the country (the part you really don’t seem to get). I told you that when they took the addresses out, I stopped even looking. Because if you think I’m going to email every realtor on every listing to find out where it is, you’re sadly mistaken. Especially, as I told you at that time, I have had very few realtors in Kingman that even return emails. Kingman seems to be in a twilight zone where realtors want to go back to the days where they get mls sheets each week and they have to manually go through looking at them with no computer access. I hate to break it to them but most buyers these days use the internet and to banish that use seems very stupid and self serving. And the droves of baby boomers you say are coming might not like being told they are not allowed to use the internet to shop. Kingman may be archaic when it comes to computers and the internet, but most people in other states are not. They will expect the same service they get in their present location and they will never get that here.
When my realtor, who I’d turned to because of Mohave pulling off of realtor.com, came up with the HBSR site and signed me up, it was wonderful. Not only did I get all the new listings in my criteria every day, but I could look up streets to see what else might be listed on that street and also look up by mls number if I was curious about another property not in my criteria. I could save the properties and be notified if anything changed. I had quite a few properties saved when they had to wipe out the addresses and locations. The fact that this was a non-public site and you cannot access it unless you are working with a realtor and they also need to re-subscribe you periodically, I see absolutely no reason that it should have been treated as if it was another realtor.com. So, you may not agree with me, but I feel it was done just to show that they don’t care about anyone but themselves.
I was just as furious when they took the addresses out of realtor.com in 2006. Before they did that I could look each day and if I saw something interesting, I could email the specific realtor and ask questions. It didn’t require me to bother anyone every day with questions. Just like I still can in 99% of the country (the part you really don’t seem to get). I told you that when they took the addresses out, I stopped even looking. Because if you think I’m going to email every realtor on every listing to find out where it is, you’re sadly mistaken. Especially, as I told you at that time, I have had very few realtors in Kingman that even return emails. Kingman seems to be in a twilight zone where realtors want to go back to the days where they get mls sheets each week and they have to manually go through looking at them with no computer access. I hate to break it to them but most buyers these days use the internet and to banish that use seems very stupid and self serving. And the droves of baby boomers you say are coming might not like being told they are not allowed to use the internet to shop. Kingman may be archaic when it comes to computers and the internet, but most people in other states are not. They will expect the same service they get in their present location and they will never get that here.
When my realtor, who I’d turned to because of Mohave pulling off of realtor.com, came up with the HBSR site and signed me up, it was wonderful. Not only did I get all the new listings in my criteria every day, but I could look up streets to see what else might be listed on that street and also look up by mls number if I was curious about another property not in my criteria. I could save the properties and be notified if anything changed. I had quite a few properties saved when they had to wipe out the addresses and locations. The fact that this was a non-public site and you cannot access it unless you are working with a realtor and they also need to re-subscribe you periodically, I see absolutely no reason that it should have been treated as if it was another realtor.com. So, you may not agree with me, but I feel it was done just to show that they don’t care about anyone but themselves.
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You keep trying to convince me and everyone else that Kingman is so unsafe that the rules were made because the safety of the sellers was a concern. I said that’s bull and I still think so. I asked questions and you just keep coming back with it’s unsafe in Kingman to put the addresses and that’s why the decision was made. Do you think that will make buyers want to move here, knowing that this is one of very few areas in the country that is so unsafe that addresses are not allowed on the net?
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I have never felt more dislike for any group of people than your “board”. I think they are doing their best to discourage anyone from buying here and I pity your poor sellers. I wonder if they realize how hard your group is trying to prevent anyone from knowing their home is for sale. Like I said I would encourage anyone trying to sell in this town to NOT use the mls. I don’t see the benefit. Most realtors don’t advertise in the paper or in the “home” book and they’re not allowed to use the internet. And who knows what they will outlaw next. There are far more avenues on the internet available to a seller that are much further reaching than your secret society that no one is allowed to breach. When I sold, in another state, I wanted the info out there everywhere possible. Our house was even on the home show on TV, accessible to millions of people in our area and the address was prominently displayed, just like everyone else’s. Even the homes with multi million dollar price tags, as I pointed out to you, have addresses listed.
I have never said you single handedly made the rules. But you elected these people and you all seem to be okay with their decisions. So I guess indirectly you are responsible for the rules. I can’t believe that you are against them and absolutely no one else is. I think a truer fact is that most of the realtors probably don’t even realize the addresses are not allowed on the internet nor the consequences in banning internet shopping.
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I have never said you single handedly made the rules. But you elected these people and you all seem to be okay with their decisions. So I guess indirectly you are responsible for the rules. I can’t believe that you are against them and absolutely no one else is. I think a truer fact is that most of the realtors probably don’t even realize the addresses are not allowed on the internet nor the consequences in banning internet shopping.
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Why do you feel that people should pay you to give you advertising and tools to help you sell property? I guess I just don’t get your thinking. You do realize that the business that is getting the benefit of the advertising usually pays the advertiser, don’t you? Isn’t the commission you receive enough? Now you want the websites willing to advertise your property and/or the buyers to pay you to even be able to view the properties you have for sale?
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This is where I have a problem with your thinking with the mls. Why is getting this information into as many venues as possible, “a big problem”? You have yet to explain to me why it is even an issue. If it was me, I would be thrilled about all the FREE advertising of something that only I have and only I can sell. What part of this don’t you get? These are contracts, no one can purchase one of the listings without the listing agent getting her “cut”. So why is it a horrible thing to advertise these homes on the internet, to a world wide audience? Why do you insist that this is a way of cheating the realtors? First your reasoning was that Kingman is unsafe for sellers(when none of the rest of the country is) and now the reason is that it is stealing to use the mls info to sell property. NO ONE can use the mls feed to sell a property, except a member of the mls. And with hbsr, no one could even access the site without a realtor member of the mls.
Once again, tell me what this non-advertising gains……..
So now we no longer have hbsr. We can no longer look at anything except fsbo’s or reo’s that are not listed by a broker. There is no reasonable way to work with the mls without being a “member” of your mls. I have the money and ability to purchase a home, but I will not continue to fight an entire real estate board just to be able to find out what is available.
So tell me how this benefits your group. What did you gain by my not being able to see addresses on realtor.com and contact the listing broker? What have you gained by taking away a realtor’s sales tool like hbsr, so that I can no longer look at and/or track properties with all the info included?
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I may be the only person in the world who has a problem with this, as you have indicated. You say no one but me has ever complained. But I suspect there are others who you will never hear from. If, when I was looking for a place to relocate, I had not been able to look for properties with prices and addresses on line, I would have just moved on to another location. You would never have heard from me. I would assume that any place that does not allow shopping and comparing, has something to hide. I’m sure I’m not the only buyer in the country that wants this info before committing to a move. Kingman is very backward when it comes to technology, but other places are not. And buyers who might come from other areas might have expectations similiar to mine. Especially Californians.
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So I’m not longer furious or “unhinged” as you called me, just resigned to the fact that we will probably not buy anything here that is listed in the mls. You guys win, but I’m not sure why you think it’s a win and exactly how my getting this information was “stealing” from your mls as you said. I am extremely offended that this is what it all boils down to, my wanting information that I can get from any other mls in the country is somehow considered “theft” in Mohave and a “big problem” for realtors.
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