GSREIN VOW News
October 12, 2009
►Virtual Office Website (VOW) Defined
►How will VOW Impact the use of the MLS?
►VOW Options for Sellers
►Listing Agreement and MLS Data Input Form Updates
VOW as defined by National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) is as follows:
Virtual Office Website (“VOW”) refers to a Participant’s Internet website, or a feature of a Participant’s Internet website, through which the Participant is capable of providing real estate brokerage services to consumers with whom the Participant has first established a broker-consumer relationship (as defined by state law) where the consumer has the opportunity to search MLS data, subject to the Participant’s oversight, supervision, and accountability.
GSREIN Virtual Office Website Policy Rules and Regulations, click link below:
http://nomarcms.memberfuse.com/vow-policy-rules-regulations
Virtual Office Website
NAR Frequently Asked Questions on VOW Policy:
NAR FAQ on VOW Policy
NAR has mandated that all MLSs in the country adopt NAR VOW policies and add the fields to the MLS to accommodate VOW data feeds. Additionally Listing Agreements will have to be modified to address the VOW options for a Seller. NOMAR’s standard listing agreement has been modified. The Listing Agreement has been updated on the NOMAR website. Note: Formulator is currently in the process of updating our on-line forms with the new Listing Agreement. NOMAR Listing Agreement (Revised 09/09)
Listing Agreement - 9/2009
In the NOMAR listing agreement we added the words “Virtual Office Website” after “Internet Data Exchange” on lines 39 and 40 of the standard NOMAR Listing Agreement so that the listing agreement will now accommodate the seller’s authorization to publish the listing on a VOW.
NOTE: NAR mandates that if the Seller chooses not to allow the listing to be published on a VOW, then it cannot be published on any internet sites including, IDX, REALTOR.COM, the Brokers website, etc. This mandate was a result of the Department of Justice ruling regarding VOWs. The field “VOW Y/N” is being added to the MLS.
One of the provisions of a VOW is that an MLS has to be able to block a property address from appearing on a public website if an owner does not authorize it. Most of our brokers, agents and owners see the marketing benefit of publishing the property address on the internet and public websites. Therefore we added the permission to display the property address to line 37 of the standard NOMAR listing agreement. There will be a field added to the MLS called “Public Address: Y/N”.
This field will default to “Y”. Of course, an owner can certainly cross out the permission to display the property address on the internet from the listing agreement if they so choose. In that event an agent must check off “No” for the “Public Address: Y/N” field in the MLS. If they check off “No”, then the property address can not be published on any Internet site populated by MLS data.
Two other provisions of a VOW state that, with the owners consent, a VOW operator
can:
a) allow VOW Public Comments in conjunction with the listing, and
b) allow an Automated Valuation Model (AVM) in conjunction with the listing.
These seller options have been added as questions to the bottom left side of the listing agreement. The MLS is adding two fields to address these two provisions, “VOW Comments Y/N” and “AVM Y/N”.
Wednesday, October 14th four new fields will be added to the MLS listing maintenance.
1) VOW = Y/N (VOW field will automatically default to “Yes”)
2) Public Address = Y/N (Public Address will automatically default to “Yes”)
3) VOW Comments = Y/N (VOW Comments will automatically default to “No”)
4) VOW Automated Valuation Model = Y/N (VOW AVM will automatically default
to “No”)
The MLS Data Input Forms for all MLS property types have been updated on the NOMAR website. Note: Formulator is currently in the process of updating our on-line forms with the new updates.
Click link below for the updated MLS Data Input Forms:
http://nomarcms.memberfuse.com/forms
MLS Data Input Forms
Participants requesting to operate VOWs must execute a VOW License Agreement.
The VOW License Agreement which includes the VOW Fee Schedule currently in final stages of legal review.
Kim A. Bergeron, e-PRO, MLS Director
New Orleans Metropolitan Association of REALTORS
Gulf South Real Estate Information Network, Inc.
3645 N. I-10 Service Rd, Metairie, LA 70002-7000
Ph: (504) 885-3200 mailto:Kim@NOMAR.org
Fax: (504) 888-1812 http://www.NOMAR.org
