I was just informed by my web hosting and IDX provider that they will be increasing my fees because, according to them, the San Antonio Board of Realtors had increased the fees it charges and they were just passing those charges along. Fair enough to the average agent I guess. However, I am on the MLS committee and know that we have not had any fee increases in the last couple of years!
Armed with this knowledge, I asked them why they made such a statement that was not true. The individual charged with replying stated that the increase was "A HQ decision, but they had been paying the fees for a long time."
Again, I double checked and they pay an average of $72/month to receive the MLS/IDX downloads and get to resell the date to agents that are already paying to list homes on the MLS. They want to increase the IDX fees by $10/month per customer! I would think this company has a lot of customers in the area based on a casual survery of web hosts. It is a dirty business, but this is America and capitalism is what makes us so great. However, capitalism is only great when it is ethical and honest.
It appears that this company has proven to be dishonest and has less than acceptable ethics in its dealing with their customers. I am now actively searching for a new web and IDX provider. If you have any recommendations, please pass them along. And I need an IDX provider that already has San Antonio.
Thanks!
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