MLS Bans Personal Promotion in Virtual Tours Elkhart County, Indiana

The virtural tour providor I have worked with provides two versions, one branded for the mls , and one not

I agree with you!  Tours can be e-mailed...linked to so many other sources...Keep your face and contact numbers in there and just leave individual photos in your listings...Agents can caravan too!    Another solution for your MLS group is to allow agents who might be forwarding "links" for specific properties to omit the tour...I do that in our area...then a client won't go around me using data I sent to them :)    They can also make the virtual tours "private" so the consumers browsing through won't be able to see them...  t would be such an easy fix!  Good luck!

I think the reason MLS does that (and it is a strict rule in our area) is simply because when I send listing information to my clients, and they decide to click on Virtual Tour, they see your promotional information, and this is what agents do not want, and I can't blame them.

I am constantly sending information to clients, either by type of property, or by the area, or price, and I do not want to be a tour guide, send them the info, and then they call the listing agents directly.

For the same reason on MLS you chose the format in which you send the information to the customers, and I choose brochure format, which will show only me in the contact. That's why the Virtual Tour providers always offer unbranded version.

When you send your virtual tour to Realtor.com, it is not a problem. It is your listing, so either way they will call you.

Good luck

Our board has long ago banned the use of private marketing in the virtual tours or listing photos. I know some people are not set up for this in other areas, but it is only fair to the agent who is sending a listing via email to their prospective buyer. InTouchHomeTours is one of many that offers dual links to tours, one with contact info and one without. It is two separate tours with contact data omitted on one link. If my contact info was found on a virtual tour I can be certain that the lead was not generated from anything but my own extra marketing, not my local MLS.

I don't know how your mls works or what the common methods of getting info to buyers is in your area.

However, in general terms, if if you are putting your listings in the mls and offering for an agent to btrng a buyer as co op ( and that is how the mls works isn't it?) then there should be no personal promotion.

See my recent post http://activerain.com/blogsview/454876/I-m-really-mad

If a buyer agent is out there drumming up buyer business, emailing listing alerts, etc, they don't want the buyer to be confused about who to talk to.

Think about how a listing agent feels when another agent comes to "preview" a listing and they really don't have a buyer.  Hey its just personal promotion.. right?

Put your tours on the mls without the  personal branding and get them sold.

OK just my opinion anyway :-)

 

My virtual tour, like Ron's, have a branded and unbranded link.  I can see both sides of this, but it is much like putting pictures on the MLS with your name and sign on them.  It makes me not want to send the listing to a new or prospective client with whom I have not yet built rapport or trust with yet.