Misrepresenting the facts has no place in real estate
Key Points
- Zillow did not buy 35 MLS's as one ActiveRain ambassador posted about
- It's one thing to speculate but it's not good to say things that aren't true
- Featuring such a post discredits ActiveRain and the real estate industry
I read a featured post today which said that my MLS along with 34 other MLS's were bought and are now controlled by Zillow.
I couldn't believe it. How could I have missed such a huge story that affected my MLS?
The writer of the post linked to an Inman News story and said one should read it for themselves.
The writer of the post said:
"What does it mean for Zillow to own the MLS boards? It means control. .....
It would make sense that Zillow would just dissolve the MLS boards and systems into their massive web presence. But it would also make sense to keep in place the way things are and then to force the MLS systems to upload the data to Zillow whether they like it or not."
Oh! My! God! Say it ain't so. The sky is falling!!!
Always read the linked article for what it actually says
Now take a look at what the Inman News story actually says:
Zillow Group, ... today announced it has acquired Bridge Interactive Group, LLC, a leading creator of broker and multiple listing service (MLS) back-office software.
OK, Zillow bought a company that supplies services to 35 MLS's. Where's the part that says Zillow now controls the data?
"With Bridge Interactive now part of the Zillow Group portfolio, Zillow Group will have no additional rights to publish broker and MLS listing data and Zillow will have no access to listing data stored on Bridge Interactive's servers, other than for the purpose of operating Bridge Interactive's systems."
Zillow didn't buy 35 MLS's. They bought a company that helps 35 MLS's manage their data.
Those MLS's can decide to switch data management companies at any time.
Those MLS's still have control over their data.
But it's a featured post. What's going on?
Featuring a misrepresentation is bad for ActiveRain
I see that ActiveRain did the right thing and unfeatured the post which never should have been featured in the first place.
I would go a step further. I would make a public apology for allowing such a post to be featured. ActiveRain isn't expected to police the thousands of posts put up every day but it should be able to vet a post before featuring it.
A featured post is taken as truth by the casual reader. One assumes that false or misrepresented information isn't going to get past the feature gods of ActiveRain.
I expect better
I haven't been very active on this platform for several years. I've been lurking over the last few months thinking that I might get more involved again.
But if this is the stuff that gets featured, I don't think I want to waste my time.
I just hate to see such misleading posts rewarded.
More than that, I hate to see casual readers being so misled. Just read the comments on that post. Very few had a clue about what the real story was. And that's sad.
Comments(7)