a la mode CEO vows to take broker data ownership fight to Homestore

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — As a broker, either you own your listing and the data advertising it, or you don’t.

That is the question presented last week when Homestore, owner and operator of REALTOR.com®, forced a la mode, a developer of technology and websites for brokers and agents, to disable its Agent XSites‘ REALTOR.com® listing import feature.

a la mode’s Agent XSites are websites and online management tools, primarily for individual real estate agents and brokers.  An important feature of any agent website is the ability to showcase the properties they have listed for sale in their local area.

Users may upload photos and descriptive listing information directly to their Agent XSite.  However, since many Agent XSite users have already uploaded all this information to REALTOR.com®, Agent XSites allowed the agent to simply type the MLS number of their listing into XSites’ listings wizard, hit submit, and have all of the information already uploaded to REALTOR.com® automatically uploaded onto their Agent XSite.

The access to REALTOR.com® was a one-time access – each time a listing was viewed on an Agent XSite, the photos and information accessed were resident on the XSite, not REALTOR.com® – with the sole purpose of avoiding duplicating work.  Thousands of Agent XSites users took advantage of this timesaving feature.  Importantly, only an individual agent’s REALTOR.com® properties were displayed on an Agent XSite – no massive “data scrape” of all the properties in a given market or area was ever performed, or even possible.

Nevertheless, Homestore, claiming among other things “copyright” to brokers&am

p;rsquo; listings data, and that they are violating REALTOR.com’s® Terms of Use by reusing listings information on their personal websites, sent a cease and desist letter demanding a la mode disable the feature.

The issue of data ownership has been percolating at the local board level for years.  With Homestore’s claim of “copyright” to listings data uploaded to its REALTOR.com® site, the issue has come to a head.  The Terms of Use Homestore cite require that the broker uploading the listings data be the owner of that listing. “If the broker owns it, as Homestore itself insists they must, can’t he or she use it as they see fit?” asked Dave Biggers, founder and CEO of a la mode.

Biggers said it’s understandable if Homestore’s license agreements with MLSs across the country obligate it to prevent third party “scraping” of data.  But the issue at hand is the broker owning the listing wanting to re-use the data. “Homestore can’t hide behind its MLS agreements,” Biggers said. “We’re not a third party wanting the data.  We don’t even use the data ourselves.  We facilitate the broker who owns it using it to sell homes.

“Think about what would happen if you put an ad for a listing in the local paper.  Then you tried to put the same ad in another paper in the area – and the first paper sued to stop you, claiming ‘copyright’ and violation of ‘Terms of Use.’ That would be nonsense,” Biggers said. “REALTOR.com® is an advertising medium.  Nothing more, nothing less.”

Biggers insisted the issue goes beyond the legal rights of the listing agent and Homestore. “We can debate all day – and many have – who owns what, and can use what information for what purpose,” he said. “At the end of the day, though, this is a service issue.  Homestore says it’s in the business of helping agents sell homes.  Its CEO said when he took the reins in 2002 that his top priority was serving REALTORS®. If that’s true, why dig in so hard and rely so heavily on legal recourse?  Companies can choose to follow the minimum requirements of the law, or they can choose to better serve their customers by allowing them more ways to help them be successful REALTORS®,” he said.

a la mode offered to enter into a licensing agreement on behalf of its Agent XSite customers – for use of their own data. “a la mode isn’t out to save the world; our customers don’t pay us to do that,” Biggers said. “They pay us for professional, attractive, effective websites that are simple to maintain.  To accomplish that, we were willing – are still willing – to negotiate a deal whereby listings owners will be ‘allowed’ by Homestore to reuse their own data.” Biggers said Homestore refused to discuss such an option.

“We have never heard of a successful business model that treated customers as competitors,” Biggers continued. “You want to showcase your listings on REALTOR.com® to help sell.  You want to use other tools – your Agent XSite, virtual tours, and so on – to complement, not ‘compete’ with, that effort.  And Homestore will threaten legal action if you do?

“Again, the broker owns the listing, Homestore not only acknowledges that but requires it.  There must be something else going on – what, I don’t know – that’s making them dig their heels in.”

Biggers vowed that his company would take the fight for broker ownership rights to their listings to corporate giant Homestore. “a la mode will continue to be your advocates, even when it’s difficult and expensive,” Biggers wrote his customers Monday. “We have the size and resources to pursue this on your behalf, and plan to aggressively do so.  We’ve been serving real estate professionals for two decades and have no plans of changing anytime soon.”

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About a la mode

Founded in 1985, a la mode develops desktop tools, mobile tools, web sites for real estate professionals, mortgage brokers, and appraisers. a la mode’s flagship product, WinTOTAL form-filling software for appraisers leads the residential appraisal industry.  a la mode’s Mercury Network, a vendor management platform for lenders, provides the most experienced local appraisers in an HVCC-compliant, easy-to-use loan ordering and management application. a la mode’s mission-critical products are used by hundreds of thousands of appraisers, agents, inspectors, and lending professionals to complete the nation’s real estate transactions.  The company’s state-of-the-art offices are located in Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, and Washington, DC.  To learn more, visit www.alamode.com.