Virtual Office Website Implementation

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Virtual Office WebsiteImplementation

• Your Best Questions

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Part 1

• Opting-Out

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How Does blanket opt out work?
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A blanket opt out can be accomplished in one of
two ways - at the discretion of the MLS 1) The
Participant notifies the MLS which, in turn,
withholds the listings of the blanket opt out
participant from the MLSs VOW download of
listing information. 2) If the MLS doesnt
offer this functionality, a blanket opt out
participant would notify the MLS of its desire to
opt out of VOWs and the MLS would add the
participant to its list of blanket opt out
participants that is available to all
participants operating VOWs. In this case, it
becomes the responsibility of participants
operating VOWs to refrain from displaying the
listings of blanket opt out participants on
their VOWs.
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How does seller opt out work with respect to a
particular listing or address?
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 MLSs may, but are not required to, have the
ability to remove a particular listing from the
VOW download (if a separate download is
provided exclusively for purposes of providing
content for participants VOWs. MLSs may also,
but are not required to, have the ability to
remove the address from particular listings that
are part of any VOW download. If the MLS does
not offer this functionality, it would be the
listing participants responsibility to make
other participants operating VOWs aware that a
particular listing could not be displayed on
their VOWs. This may be difficult, particularly
in large MLSs but could be accomplished by using
the MLSs e-mail function to communicate this
information to other participants.
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How is selective opt out handled with respect
to a particular participant?
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Definition of Participant

• An MLS participant is a broker or a brokerage
  firm that participates in an MLS. In this context
  it also refers to brokers or brokerage firms that
  operate VOWs. (See MLS Policy Statement 7.9
  Definition of MLS Participant).

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An MLS participant can selectively opt out with
respect to another participants VOW by providing
written notice to that participant of the listing
participants independent business decision to
withhold consent for display of the listing
participants listings on the displaying
participants VOW. It becomes the
responsibility of the displaying participant to
remove such listings from his/her VOW.
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Who can have a VOW?
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MLS participants with the capacity to offer real
estate brokerage services are eligible to operate
VOWs. Non-principal brokers and sales licensees
may also operate VOWs at the discretion of each
MLS and with the consent of their principal
broker.
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Can "opting out" take place at the agent level?
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NAR has concluded that the most reasonable
interpretation of the policy results in opting
out at the agent level.
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Part 2

• The Parity Principle

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What is the "parity principle"?
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The parity principle acknowledges that in some
respects VOWs are analogous to traditional brick
and mortar offices. Thus, in certain key areas
participants have equivalent rights,
responsibilities and obligations with respect to
both their physical and their virtual
offices. Areas where equivalent requirements are
necessary, if any related rule is established,
include
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       Display of expired, withdrawn, pending
and sold listings.      Display of compensation
offered to other MLS participants.      Display
of listing agreement type (i.e., exclusive right
to sell or exclusive agency).      Display of
sellers and occupants names, phone numbers, and
email addresses.      Display of
information/Instructions intended exclusively for
cooperating brokers.      Advertising on pages
displaying other participants listings (or any
portion of their listings) except that the name,
address, phone number and company logo of the
participant operating the VOW the name, address,
and phone number of any non-principal broker or
sales licensee operating the VOW (where
permitted) and any information required by state
law is not considered prohibited advertising.
      Changing information in MLS data
fields.      Supplementing MLS data with
additional data (where such data display is not
otherwise prohibited) with the source of any
additional data being clearly identified.      
Inclusion of notices that data is deemed reliable
but not guaranteed accurate by the MLS.      
Display of the name of the listing firm in
typeface not smaller median typeface used in the
display of listing data.
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Must virtual offices and traditional offices
be treated identically in all respects under the
VOW policy?
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No. The VOW policy allows MLSs to establish
certain rules or requirements that apply only to
VOWs. These are 1) Listings obtained from
other sources (e.g., other MLSs, non-participant
brokers, or other sources) must display the
source from which they were obtained. 2)
Passwords may be valid for a period as determined
by the MLS, after which they must be changed or
reconfirmed at the discretion of the VOW
operator. 3) Non-principal brokers and sales
licensees may operate their own VOWs only if
permitted by the MLS.
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Must the name of the listing firm be displayed
when its listing is made available on another
participants VOW?
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An MLS may, as a matter of local discretion,
require that listings displayed on VOWs identify
the name of the listing firm, provided an
equivalent requirement is imposed on
participants use of MLS information in providing
brokerage services via all other delivery
mechanisms (including traditional brick and
mortar offices). MLSs and VOW operators will
want to determine if state law or regulations
require display of the listing firms name.
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If an MLS does not permit VOW registrants to
retrieve, view or download sold listings, may
VOWs nonetheless still provide registrants with
CMAs?
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A distinction should be drawn between raw data,
including sold sold listings, and use of such
information to develop or support opinions of
real property value or price such as appraisals,
broker price opinions and CMAs. The fact that an
MLS, as a matter of local determination,
precludes participants from making sold
listings available to consumers does not bar
participants from developing and delivering CMAs
or other opinions of value or price via VOWs or
any other delivery mechanism (including
traditional brick and mortar offices) even
though such opinions are based on sold listings
or include sold listings to support their
conclusions.
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Part 3

• Process Issues

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Who determines whether a registrants password is
renewed or a new password assigned?
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The VOW operator.
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Whats the difference between a persistent
download and a transient download?
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A persistent download is a transfer of MLS
information from the MLSs server to a
participants server from which it is available
to be searched by registrants. A transient
download approach is used, MLS information
remains on the MLSs server. Queries from
registrants are received by a VOW and only
information responsive to the query is extracted
from the MLSs server and transferred to the VOW
where it is then formatted as desired by the
VOWs software, and then transmitted to the
inquiring registrant. The key differenceIn
a persistent download MLS information resides on
the VOWs serverIn a transient download MLS
information resides on the MLSs server.
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Can the MLS require that VOWs be refreshed more
frequently than every seven (7) days?
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No. MLSs must require that participants refresh
their listing data once every seven (7) days.
Participants are free to refresh MLS data more
frequently than that if they choose.
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I dont want to make a substantial investment in
hardware and software and would prefer a VOW
framing solution. Does the VOW policy require
MLSs to provide one?
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Framing is a VOW option available to
participants if an MLS maintains a publicly
accessible website. The VOW policy does not
require MLSs to maintain a publicly accessible
website or to offer a framing VOW solution.
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May an MLS exclude Exclusive Agency listings'
from the VOW data feed?

• No, NAR policies require MLSs to accept exclusive
  agency listings and there is nothing in the VOW
  policy that would authorize an MLS to exclude
  those listings from their VOW data feed.