Have you ever heard of OMD? Type the letters into a search engine, like Google or Yahoo, and your search results will include a 1980s rock band, Oregon Military Department and "on-line medical dictionary."
What you won't find is overlapping market disorder. This is a term used by the MLS industry to describe the scenario when real estate professionals must belong to more than one MLS to facilitate their business. In these instances, brokers and agents incur duplicate fees, duplicate efforts, lost productivity and lost opportunity.
To illustrate the effects of OMD, TRENDLink talked to one broker and one agent about how they have been impacted as well as the clients they serve. TREND is working to to implement various solutions to help lessen the impact of members having to belong to more than one MLS.
Effects on Agents
While the term, OMD, might be fairly new, many brokers and agents have been feeling its impact for years. Just ask Susan Steber, a full-time real estate agent for the past two decades.
To serve her client base, Steber and her office, RE/MAX Tri-County, located in Hamilton Square, NJ must belong to multiple MLSs. Though Steber's office is located in Mercer County, she has clients that reside in Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties.
These three counties border TREND's coverage area; however, since TREND has an extremely limited number of listings for these counties, Steber also must join the MLSs that service these other counties.
As a result, Steber feels like she works two jobs in order to keep her listing information updated.
"I have to do everything multiple times," says Steber, referring to the fact that each listing must be entered and maintained in each MLS. "It triples my workload. It's like having another full-time job. Even if I want to enter something as simple as an open house, I have to enter it in each MLS. It's all really cumbersome."
In addition to the extra workload, Steber experiences additional monetary expenses. Belonging to three MLSs requires her to pay fees annually of up to $1,000. In today's declining market, these fees can become a hardship. And don't forget to add on top of the triplicate work and multiple MLS memberships, the fact she must also pay for and know how to use multiple lockbox systems.
Having to pay duplicate fees and perform duplicate tasks is frustrating to Steber. After each of her listings is entered into each of the MLSs, they must be maintained, which takes up even more of her time and leaves less time for working with clients. Steber feels the effects of lost productivity and opportunities and hopes a solution will be found for OMD.
Brokers Feel the Effects Too
Jack Fry, broker of RE/MAX of Reading, has seen the real estate industry change dramatically during his 30 years in the business. Few issues have frustrated him more than those he faces because of OMD.
Even though Fry conducts much of his business in Berks County, to support his clients' needs in surrounding counties, such as Lancaster, Lehigh and Schuylkill counties, he and his agents must belong to other MLSs. In addition, Fry also pays to use three lockbox systems. That translates into a staggering number paid in duplicate fees.
"There are incredible costs to serve everyone," Fry says. "But I don't have a choice, since I have customers in every one of those counties."
From a business perspective, Fry, like his agents, has to learn how to use four different MLS systems, follow four different sets of rules, policies and business practices to manage a single office. But above and beyond the productivity impact required to manage the listings in four different MLSs, Fry also has to pay for and manage multiple data feeds to facilitate his call center, back office operations and market share programs as well as multiple data feeds to run the company's website. This becomes costly as the feeds come from different sources and use different formats.
Clients Feel the Frustration, Too
Both Steber and Fry say their clients also feel frustrated over the effects of OMD. When clients ask for listing information, they might receive property reports from different MLSs that have very different appearances. Often, the reports have different formats and even the most basic listing information, such as the address and list price, appear in different locations. One MLS's reports
"My clients don't understand why one MLS report looks different from another."
display the address and price of the property across the top of the report, while another MLS puts this same information lower on the report.
"My clients don't understand why one MLS report looks different from another," Steber explains. "They think all of the reports should look the same."
Their clients don't understand how MLSs work or that each one has geographical boundaries. This becomes even more apparent when clients visit a consumer-based website, like REALTOR.com or Philly.com, and can view listings from anywhere and see identical reports. All of the reports have the same look and feel, with the listing information appearing consistently in the same location.
"If they see a property and they want to know more about it, I have to find it," Steber says. "It might be right up the street, but it's only listed in one MLS. They want to know how come I didn't find it?" Then she has to explain how MLSs work.
Her clients don't understand that a property can be listed with an office in one MLS, but a second property is the listing of another office, which is affiliated with a different MLS. Steber must join then search both MLSs in order to find the same listings as her clients. This makes the consumer more empowered than Steber, placing her at an extreme disadvantage as the real estate professional.
Additionally, Steber has to carefully track what listings her clients have received in order to avoid sending duplicate information. She checks the work that she has performed in the other MLSs to make certain information hasn't been sent previously.
TREND Takes Lead in Solving OMD
TREND borders 10 other MLSs and estimates that roughly 20 percent, or approximately 6,000 of our members are impacted by OMD. These members pay for multiple memberships, must learn how to use multiple systems, enter listings multiple times and abide by multiple sets of rules and procedures.
TREND recognizes how our members are being affected by OMD and, as an industry leader, we are exploring new and innovative ways of helping our members reduce the impact.
TREND believes we can make a difference by entering into reciprocal membership agreements with other MLSs (
Ocean), as well as by supporting industry standards, like the
Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS), and employing
advanced technology to facilitate
data sharing with neighboring MLSs.
You can see that OMD is a serious concern for brokers, agents and consumers. TREND is focused on the needs of our members and continues to strive towards providing the products and services they require to successfully conduct business.
This year, one of TREND's highest priorities is to find and implement solutions that address OMD. In the coming months, you will see information about projects, such as RETS and data sharing, and how you will benefit from these endeavors.