Have you checked out the real estate search tool on WashingtonPost.com lately? MRIS recently joined forces with The Washington Post to power their online real estate search tool. Now when consumers search for properties on WashingtonPost.com, they are searching active listings provided by MRIS. This means more exposure for you and more leads!
The Washington Post’s website traffic was recently ranked as one of the nation’s top newspaper websites along with the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today.
“As The Post is consistently regarded as one of the most highly respected and actively referenced news and information sources in the world, MRIS is pleased to forge this new relationship. At MRIS, job #1 is exploring and leveraging marketing platforms for our customers’ real estate listings to expose the maximum number of qualified buyers to the property. The Post’s demographic and reach present a perfect match for this initiative,” said MRIS CMO John L. Heithaus in the Post’s recent press release.
Stay tuned for additional partnerships with other local media sites to drive more buyers and sellers to you.
Do you have permission from brokers to use their listings in this manner? What does "Stay tuned for additional partnerships" mean? Are you guys getting into the Zillow/Trulia business?
Bruce, thank you for your comment. Yes, brokers have the ability to opt-out, or remain opted-in, to the Washington Post listing share program. As for getting into the Zillow/Trulia business, no MRIS is not getting into this business. We partnered with the Washington Post to provide additional marketing channels for real estate professionals to advertise their listings in the area. We also created an on-line form for brokers to opt-out/in of these listing share programs.
My first reaction is that MRIS has no business creating partnerships like this and profiting from our listings. When did that become part of MRIS' charter? I do see that all listing agent contact information is present with each listing, but what prevents the Washington Post from selling "featured agent coverage" just like the syndicators? Why is there a contact form available for 'more information' on some listings, but not on others? Does a broker have to pay for the privileged of a contact form?
And from your comment, I assume that every single broker was opted-in by default, and that they must take the action to find this opt-out form to remove listings. Is that correct? If so – where's the form? Why wouldn't the Washington Post show up in ListHub like every other syndicated site? Any why isn't this an 'Opt-in' program?
Is MRIS getting paid for this data? And if so, does this go back to the brokers? Right now Wash Post is advertising GE, NextDay Blinds and selling Toyota's next to listings. Someone's making money off of this.
Who decided that we needed additional marketing exposure? Good grief. Our listings must be on hundreds of local sites: HomesDatabase, R.com, the syndicators (as controlled by the broker) and myriads of IDX driven sites.
I should have waited two minutes. I see a huge sidebar from Long and Foster next to one of my listings. Nice.
Thank you, MRIS. Our Sellers are thankful for all the exposure they can get!