7 Responses for "Sequim MLS: Olympic Listing Service or NWMLS?"

1. Cary NC Real Estate August 19th, 2009 at 3:42 pm 1

   I agree. Being the member of two listings doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I see where you are coming from. You want to do the best to serve your clients and to show them you are doing everything you can to help get their property sold.

2. Marguerite December 14th, 2009 at 9:42 am 2

   Chuck, I disagree. The REALTOR(R) members of the Olympic Peninsula are the ones who know the real estate market here, and who know all of the County/City regulations. NWMLS members have access to our keyboxes–and, without membership in OLS, it is good that they have to call one of us to get all the information, before showing. The great majority of sales on the Peninsula are by Peninsula agents–whether OLS members or dual members. Do you really want us to open up our listed homes to the thousands of out of area real estate agents who know little or nothing about our zoning, critical areas, pending sewer assessments, etcetera?

3. Chuck Marunde December 14th, 2009 at 10:07 am 3

   Marguerite, It sounds to me like we don’t disagree. I agree with your comment that, “The REALTOR(R) members of the Olympic Peninsula are the ones who know the real estate market here, and who know all of the County/City regulations.”

   And I agree with your comment that, “NWMLS members have access to our keyboxes–and, without membership in OLS, it is good that they have to call one of us to get all the information, before showing.”

   And I agree with your comment that, “The great majority of sales on the Peninsula are by Peninsula agents–whether OLS members or dual members.”

   You asked, “Do you really want us to open up our listed homes to the thousands of out of area real estate agents who know little or nothing about our zoning, critical areas, pending sewer assessments, etcetera?” My answer is the same as yours, “No.”

   My points are that we currently have two MLS’s, that the OLS is the only one with all our listings, and that the NWMLS is superior from a technological perspective. I make the point that since the OLS is the only one with 100% of our local listings, it is the only one we can use for comps or other research, and the only one where buyers will find all the listings.

   Whether we should ultimately go with the OLS or the NWMLS is the issue that I think you are focusing on, and I didn’t really answer that. It’s a complicated issue. I could argue back and forth on that issue. The NWMLS is a better system from a purely technological perspective, but not all local brokers and agents are members, so the OLS is better for now from a practical perspective. Do we want out of county agents to have to call us, or to have full information to show and sell the listings? It would be good if they are forced to call the listing agent, one of us, first, but I don’t know that that is going to be more beneficial or less beneficial to our clients.

   One of the main reasons I felt compelled to also join the NWMLS is so that my clients’ listings can get the greatest possible exposure, and very specifically I wanted to be sure that my listings were showing up on all local Realtor’s website MLS sites, because some local franchise brokers only use an IDX feed from the NWMLS. I can speculate why they are using the NWMLS data feed, which does not include all local listings, instead of the OLS IDX feed, but the point is that if I’m not a member of the NWMLS, my clients’ listings won’t show up on some local broker/agent MLS search pages. Not good. My client’s listings must be ubiquitous for the most effective marketing. My strategy has successfully placed my clients’ listings on every agent’s MLS site. I like that.

   Want some brief speculation as to why franchise brokerages or corporate brokerages based outside Clallam County use the NWMLS IDX feed on their sites (and not all of them do here)? Why would they use an MLS search on their sites that don’t represent all the local listings? This is clearly not based on what is best for consumer buyers, because they won’t find all the houses for sale here. Duh! My guess, and I could be wrong, is that either the corporate office or franchise requires the local broker to use the NWMLS IDX feed, because they want symmetry with all their corporate websites (these are not typically local websites designed and maintained by a local agent), but also because they probably have a licensing agreement with the NWMLS for these feeds and not the OLS. So it is logically a technical reason and a corporate control reason. But if I am anywhere close to the truth on this, buyers are not able to see all the houses listed for sale (the many that are not in the NWMLS), and that doesn’t seem to be in the best interests of the consumer buyer. My business model puts the consumer buyer at the center of the Universe. This is one reason why in my opinion buyers and sellers will be best served by an independent real estate broker, who is not subject to corporate control from outside the area.

   I like to think about issues from a client-centered perspective. What will help a client sell his/her house faster and for the highest price? What will help buyers most efficiently find their dream home here? You know as I write this and am forced to articulate these thoughts, it does seem to me that maybe, just maybe (I’m not adamant on this by any means), it is more beneficial to our clients to get the listings the greatest possible exposure period. If that is true, then the NWMLS has greater exposure through it’s massively larger membership and all it’s IDX feeds to the largest national real estate services around the country. If I’m right about that, perhaps we should all go with the NWMLS and finally drop the OLS. If Sequim and Port Angeles brokers cannot all agree to do that, we should all stay with the OLS and drop the NWMLS. Right now we have a bifurcated or disjointed system. Consumers would benefit most if we had one MLS here.

   Of course, I could be wrong (as Dennis Miller likes to say).

4. Marti Winkler August 21st, 2010 at 3:43 pm 4

   Chuck,

   Thanks so much for discussing this issue. As a Realtor and a Certified Residential Appraiser I have been beating this drum for the last couple of years hoping for some change.

   The fact that we have 2 MLS systems running in Sequim is absolutely ridiculous to me, as it is a huge disservice to buyers and sellers, and is negatively impacting property values. I’ve been very vocal about laying out the facts and my concerns in my blog: sequim-living.com if you care to read through it.

   Also, I totally disagree with Marguerite when she raises the question about ‘opening up our listings’ to out of the area agents. I can assure you that my sellers would be very happy to have ANY AGENT sell their home to a qualified buyer, no matter where they are from.

   And it’s OUR JOB as listing agents to PROVIDE any and all information needed to another agent, whether they are local or not, to assist them in selling our listings.

   I do, however, disagree with your statement that 100% of all the listings are in OLS, as that is no longer the case. There are many NWMLS only listings from outside Clallam County, and agents/offices that only use OLS are not aware of these other NWMLS only listings.

   Again, I deal with this situation on a daily basis as an appraiser, and it only makes sense to me that we should have 1 very good MLS, which is NWMLS, as the sole data service provider in this area. It costs less, has a much greater reach and is a much better tool. Sorry, but OLS/Paragon is an outdated archaic tool compared with NWMLS/Matrix, and I appreciate you pointing that out so well in your post.

   I believe that OLS only agents/offices are not really providing the best possible service to their clients by not being part of NWMLS.

   I totally agree with you that consumers would benefit most by having only 1 MLS system, and it should be NWMLS.

5. Chuck Marunde August 21st, 2010 at 7:39 pm 5

   Marti, you make excellent points. And you are right that there are now some listings in the NWMLS that are not in the OLS. But those are listings that are listed by agents outside the area who are not members of the OLS, or they are FSBOs that have listed in the NWMLS and paid thier fee. I believe all local Sequim and Port Angeles agents are members of the OLS as a requirement of membership, and it is mandatory that all our listings go in the OLS. The OLS system called “Paragon” has had some upgrades lately, and some are excitedly talking about the Paragon improvements. I still find Paragon woefully inadequate compared to the NWMLS. Just my opinion. I could be wrong.

6. Jim Bowers September 7th, 2010 at 7:36 am 6

   I am representative of the perspective home buyer described here. My wife and I plan to relocate to the Olympic Peninsula after over 35 years in the Western Washington Cascade foothills. We have been searching for a home for over a year. I must admit that it was a bit disheartening to find out recently that there is in fact a second MLS system. Like many these days, we have been doing our searching on line for a home; and then making contact with the local agent. There are two reasons for doing things this way: first, the on line MLS technology you speak of is excellent; secondly (sadly), most of the real estate agents we have come in contact with are not particularly ambitious, much less aggressive, about finding us a suitable home. I will add here that we are not a ‘contingency buyer’ and do not have to sell first in order to purchase. I would think we are the best of the best when it comes to perspective clientele.

   I agree with you, Chuck, when you say that it would be best to have as many resources as possible available to serve your clients. I would further agree that the NWMLS technology seems to be superior when it comes to presenting homes for sale. I would strongly disagree with your real estate associate who is trying to keep the business within the confines of the Olympic Peninsula when many from outside the area are looking to relocate there. This attitude seems mostly self-serving in a service industry; and at one time would be referred to as ‘drinking your own bath water’. If I could offer any comfort at it, it would be to say that most King County agents we have met have little desire to sell in the Olympic Peninsula market leaving us to find our own way about through the listings.

   Fortunately, we have found an agent willing to travel and look out for our interests; and who is old school enough to make contact with the local agent prior to a showing. Better, we now also have knowledge of the OLS resource. Thank you, Chuck, for this very useful article; and your willingness to go above and beyond, if not against the tide, in a seemingly self-serving ‘service’ industry.

7. Linda Lee June 17th, 2011 at 9:26 am 7

   Chuck, thanks for these articles and your willingness to go above and beyond, if not against the tide.