San Diego recently adopted a rule prohibiting all Realtors from using "MLS" in their web domain address; do other states have this same rule?
The reason given is: that by using the MLS in your domain is somehow misleading the public into thinking the agent is the actual MLS.
What's your opinion?
I actually agree with that. Why else would you want to use the MLS in you URL?
Drew,
They're just following NAR guidelines for REALTORS®. The problem really arises because agents who are not REALTORS® can still use MLS in their domain names.
Rich
One reason Realtors may want to use the term MLS in their domain is for the obvious reason.....it's a common keyword used when searching for real estate online.
I agree it is a dumb rule; those who are NOT Realtors can use the term MLS since it is not trade marked or protected like the word Realtor. At times it seems that the associations of Realtors do more to prevent our success than they do to help us. This in particular seems like someone is pissed they didn't think to market their site with such a smart keyword so decided to make a arbitrary rule preventing everyone else from doing so.
Now a non-Realtor can use the term in their domain, generate a ton of leads and sell the leads back to Realtors......
Typical dumb NAR kneejerk response. They can only punish the dues paying members. Meanwhile aggregaters and other non-members continue to used it without penalty.
Back when the rule was published, I emailed NAR asking how they would handle Major League Soccer.
You could fix the lead companies and their stupid tactics in one fell swoop. Just don't buy leads. If everyone agent was driven enought to put in their own work this wouldn't even be and issue. Unfortunately, too many agents are always out there searching for the magic bullet and trying to buy a shortcut.
I don't know if people think it is "the" actual MLS, but certainly I think one could think that it was an "authorized" site.
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