I prefer not to speak ill of other agents, I just don't want the karma to boomerang back to me.

A few weeks ago, another agent overbooked him/herself, and asked if I could hold one of their Opens. It was a favor that I could eventually call back, and in the process, would provide exposure to other sellers & buyers in my neighborhood.

The two hour Open has all of one buyer walk through, and they came in with their agent, and so, the house may have been on their "list" rather than being a destination for an Open. It was a beautiful day, and the market may be slower than 2005, but it's not that slow.

Getting back to work later that night, I realized part of the problem. The MLS system had no information advising other agents about the Open. Therefore, agents weren't able to advise their buyers. The MLS-public version also had no notification of the Open, for the consumers who are online at HomesDatabase. But this day's Open wasn't to be found.
There are a few hundred websites devoted to real estate, and while it's difficult to expect a Realtor® to publish in all, it's not a stretch to expect at least the top 2-3-4-dozen web sites to have the Open House advertised. Again, the Open on this day may have happened, but it wasn't marketed here either.

In conclusion, this is great since it makes me look that much better to my clients/sellers; but this lack of full service doesn't help the industry and it would only make the seller that much more upset if they understood.

The lesson I learned was that should I accept another assignment to spend a Sunday afternoon showing a home that isn't my responsibility to sell, I'll make certain that it is advertised, otherwise, how will I get that buyer client that I was hoping for? Ultimately, the buyer doesn't care if it's my ad or the true listing agent's ad, they just want to know about the Open. And yes, I'll ensure that I have permission to run the ads from the true listing agent, who will only be more than happy if I say to them "I'm gogin to put a dozen or so listings advertising the Open"