Austin Real Estate Blog

OCLC (an organization with a mission similar to RPR, but for libraries) has alienated itself from it's supposed beneficiaries. Could something like this happen with RPR?

In order to understand the potential problems with providing original real estate records to a communally-owned database, as RPR is suggesting, it’s useful to look at an analogous situation that exists in a similar community: the library world.

On July 6, 1967, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) was founded as a cooperative effort among libraries to allow standardization and sharing of bibliographic records among libraries who signed up for this service. The records were to remain the property of the library that created them, but would be free to use for any member library, with only a small cost-recovery fee charged for various services. OCLC continued to grow, until today it serves 72,000 libraries all around the world, who participate by creating bibliographic records and sharing them. OCLC is also available for library users to search, allowing them to locate hard-to-find items through its online search options. So, libraries created bibliographic records for books and journals and CDs and DVDs, and users could find information on them through OCLC. And everything was fine, for a while.

Then, in 2008 OCLC announced its proposed “Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records,” which required that all records before and since that appear in OCLC would bear a line granting copyright (license) over the record to OCLC and prohibiting the record’s use in any other service that was similar to OCLC. Essentially, OCLC simply took over the license for those records. OCLC did not make those records, so how could they do this?

The answer lies in the way that copyright law is structured. The records stored in OCLC were comprised of facts. Facts cannot be copyrighted. I can’t copyright the fact that a house is located at a certain address or that it is on the market for a specific amount; I can’t copyright that grass is green and the sky is blue. I can, however, copyright the way that I describe the house, the look and feel of my real estate descriptions, and the formatting I use in creating a listing for the house. It’s the last issue, that of formatting and metadata, that created the situation with OCLC.

OCLC didn’t claim ownership over the information in its database; it couldn’t. Copyright doesn’t allow for ownership of facts. Instead, OCLC claimed ownership over the format and metadata (descriptions of the books) – the look and feel of the interface – as its justification for claiming the right to license the records. Because the information had to be entered in a format that OCLC set up when the initial database was first put into place, OCLC owned the format. The records in that format were thus the property of OCLC because the format was OCLC’s. Restrictions were outlined that restricted the rights of libraries to use the records, even for records they had created themselves and that logic would dictate those libraries “owned.” Despite public outcry, the provision was implemented in 2009.

But OCLC was a consortium of libraries working together, right? So how could they do something that was so clearly at odds with what the majority of the membership wanted?

The answer, sadly, is that OCLC’s leadership seems more interested in protecting its own financial interests than in being responsive to its membership. Once OCLC became the standard that most libraries used, it began to derive its own profit-driven agenda; since it essentially had a monopoly on the records that had already been created, it no longer needed to serve the libraries that had created it and built its success.

If any of this sounds familiar, it should. Similar situations are arising throughout the intellectual property world. If RPR successfully implements its proposed database, it can make a claim that the records contained belong to it, no matter who originally created the record, because RPR would own the format and metadata. This would allow for a widespread land grab that could end up costing members and others simply to get their own listings back.

Don’t think this could ever happen? It already has. Just ask a librarian.

Put this on my www.joecline.com/blog by accident. Here is the link, if you were looking for this post about the Realtors Property resource. I made this little ditty in Photoshop just for giggles. I was in a startup company a few years back and when the impending death sale of the company was in progress we had similarly themed, but much, much more professionally created posters. You know, don’t let any details slip out or you’ll sink the ship. Anyway, silence is great in war, but NOT WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO GAIN BUY IN or when you’ve used association moneys to start your company!

Someone should let the folks at RPR know that we ARE interested, but are not going to swallow whatever they produce hook, line, and sinker.

If you’re an agent you should do some research on the proposed RPR or Realtors Property Resource.

You can read about it here.

http://www.inman.com/news/2009/11/12/mls-buy-in-key-nar-database?page=0%2C4
and here
http://www.inman.com/news/2009/11/14/rpr-execs-under-fire-nar

Below is a snippet from the 1000watt blog posted on Inman. If you’d rather a more concise description skip down past the quote.

The NAR has taken over certain technology assets of Cyberhomes from LPS (formerly known as FNRES) in order to bring its RPR (Realtors Property Resource) project, as well as its consumer-facing play, HouseLogic, to market. To do this, they have created Realtors Property Resource LLC — a wholly owned subsidiary of the NAR.

Certain LPS executives, including Cyberhomes GM Marty Frame, will be making the transition over to NAR/RPR (see Inman News article). Frame will serve as the president of the new entity. Dale Ross, who was co-founder of MRIS, the nation’s largest MLS, will be CEO. LPS will also provide call center support and other services as part of the deal.

The RPR database will contain parcel information on nearly 150 million properties through a data license from LPS, which (along with First American) is one of the two major sources of public property data.

This is interesting news, but let’s back up a minute for those of you who have more well-rounded lives than I (my fellow online RE junkies can skip down to my take on what this deal means).

The RPR is the national property database initiative that the NAR has been quietly working on for some time. It has gone by a number of names over the past couple years, including “Gateway,” “The Real Estate Channel,” and the “Library/Archive.” It will aggregate tons of property data, including public records, in one place. This will be a Realtor-only database. The idea is to keep agents and brokers competitive amidst widespread data diffusion and other challenges.

HouseLogic.com is a NAR-owned public destination site that will be unveiled next week at the NAR EXPO. The site is part of the NAR’s long-term strategy to engage consumers on behalf of its members.

RIN is the “Realtors Information Network,” a for-profit arm of the NAR from which the RPR sprung. It was conceived for the purpose of creating an ill-fated online real estate service nearly 15 years ago. It was proprietary, something like a Prodigy or early AOL-type service. It blew up, costing the NAR millions. It was from that failure that the present-day Realtor.com was born, in 1996.

Thanks to Brian Boero and Inman for the above snippet.

If you don’t subscribe to Inman here’s the gist…

Sometimes it feels like this is my relationship with NAR...

REALTORs Property Resource in a Nutshell

Basically, NAR would love to create another cash cow like Realtor.com by taking our MLS data and building a system around it, then selling it to the likes of ANYONE WHO WILL PAY FOR IT including government agencies. Can you say appraisal districts? Hope everyone is ready for their taxes to go up once we expose our complete MLS data (even in aggregate).

A Better Idea

And you folks are Realtors like me…. Why doesn’t our MLS ever agree to give any of us all the data for free so I can sell it to other people? IDX feeds for members are $200 per year now (or thereabouts).

I’ve got an idea. Why don’t all the MLS systems around the country give me the data. Then, you know, I’ll build a website with your images, your listing data, and publicly available records and then I’ll sell the services to you and other entities for a profit? Of course your dues may go up a bit since you’ll have to hire someone at ABOR to handle all this data exchange, help NAR with any issues they have, etc, etc.

Sounds like a good deal, right? Who’s on board?

I’m not a data entry robot working to make NAR and their partners money while paying Realtor.com $50 a listing to “showcase” my data on their website, not to mention a website that is worthless without said data.

Who Wants Higher Property Taxes?

In Texas, we are a non-disclosure state and they want to sell the info to government agencies. Um.. I’m pretty sure that all the appraisal districts will love that. Personally, I think this is the dumbest thing NAR members could do to themselves. If NAR wants said data for their system our MLS should charge them accordingly. I think $100 per listing sounds about right. Then we could automatically get a featured listing in Realtor.com and have $50 profit that could go to reduce or eliminate our MLS fees.

Sounds more fair to me. NAR can go and partner and sell the data, but they need to BUY IT FIRST.

Aside from all this… Why do I, as an agent in central Texas need, or care about accurate valuation or data about property in Montana? I’m not licensed there. I don’t sell there. And NAR Code of Ethics Article 11 says I can’t because I’m not competent in the workings of real estate in Montana.

Why should my dollars go to fund a NAR company that makes profits for LPS Real Estate (an RPR partner) and allows the data that is our lifeblood to go out to whomever?

I’ve only been thinking about this for a few days so I could be wrong. I would love to hear what other folks at our board or at any board across the nation think. If you are for or against the RPR and have an interest in real estate other than being a salesperson please disclose it so we can get a read on where each stakeholder stands.

Joe Cline – REMAX Capital City

United States new home sales numbers have continued to increase between May and June. The numbers made available by the US Commerce Department appear to reflect a market recovery.

Between May and June the sales of single family homes increased 11 percent alone. This jump indicates a third consecutive increase, and surpasses the anticipated increase of 2.3 percent by many economists. This particular jump holds additional significance. Home sales have not made a significant increase of this nature since Dec. 2000, 8.5 years ago.

Additional positive news for the housing industry can be found in re-sales that posted an increase of 3.6 percent for the month of June. This puts the housing market in a more stable up swing than previous projection. This can be found in a report from the National Association of Realtors.

In the Austin area more than 2100 single family homes sold in June. This is actually down 4 percent from June of the previous year. According to a report from the Austin Board of Realtors, the year over year sales volume gap is decreasing every month, making Austin a steadier housing market then the majority of the country. The median price has remained the same, just under 200 thousand dollars, when comparing the same month in both years.

Overall, Austin sales volume is also increasing. The housing sales market report of this area indicates that sales have increased 61 percent since the onset of 2009.

Once again this proves the housing market in Central Texas is one of the most prolific.

We are in a very tough economy right now. In the past couple of years, the housing market has been at the forefront of this. Home values have dropped so significantly in some areas, many homeowners face a current mortgage loan worth more than their home. Foreclosures have increased nationwide, and even the Federal Bailout plan has not seemed to help the market as much as expected. Banks have tightened their lending practices and have made it nearly impossible for those with less than perfect credit to purchase a home. Many investors have chosen to stay out of the market as they wait for it to get better. Most experts believe that the national housing market will begin to see increases sometime in 2010. In the meantime, some good news has recently been released in the form of a report stating that pending home sales have actually risen more than 6% since November of last year.

The National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales for December were at 87.7 for previously owned homes. That is a 6.3% rise from November, the lowest month on record as 82.5. Realtors are hopeful this increase is the beginning of the end of the national market crisis, but do remain aware that the overall economy must also get better to fully pull out of the crisis. It is important to note that these increases were from the South and the Midwest. Pending home sales in the West and Northeast continue to decline. Sales of newly built homes are also low. While several investors are cautiously reentering the market, no one is quite prepared to go all in yet. There is more funding in the Federal Bailout plan that will hopefully help to better the overall market and help to stimulate the economy.

As it turns out there is hope behind all the gray clouds created by the national media!Every now and again you have to wonder why a down market is considered bad. I talked with a friend who had the opportunity to pick the brain of a successful real estate investor. My friend told me the one gem that he gleaned from his conversation with the successful investor was that you always want ot have dry powder.

I’m not the avid hunter so forgive me if I expound on this here, but that is basically reinforcing the old adage, “buy low, sell high”. But a lot of investors tap out their funds when the market is hot and they see dollar signs. The successful investor has dry powder ready to pull the trigger when the market is down so that they are flush when the market returns. And the market always returns.

So if you’re thinking about investing, now is the time.

Check out the info below.

Excerpts: Positive Signs for the Real Estate Market

Buyers Waiting on the Sidelines Should Get in the Game

• Buyers wanting to hold properties for a long time could be well served
  by starting to look at purchasing the property now. Over the long
  term, home appreciation out paces savings from lower prices.
• Despite the recent declines in some markets,
  national home prices are up 80.5%
  over the first quarter of 2001.
• One reason potential buyers may want to act
  quickly: Historically, when home prices fall, they don’t fall for long.
• “If we go back to early 90’s when real estate prices were falling,
  the reverse came extremely quickly and very unexpectedly.” There is
  some indication that the down market period will be shorter than it was
  in the 1990s.
  The job market is actually still very healthy today and the unemployment
  rate is low, contrasting with the rising jobless rate in the early 1990s.
  When
  the market reverses you may well end up missing the bargain you were holding
  out for and wind up paying more than you would have if you had acted during
  the down market.

Excerpt from David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P Index Committee, “Good
Time to Look for a Second Home?” by Sheree R. Curry, TheStreet.com,
November 30, 2007.

• “A combination of lower prices, a large inventory and mortgage rates
  well below 7 percent offer buyers a terrific opportunity to find the home
  that they want AND make a good investment. Real estate should be considered
  a a long-term investment.”
• It really doesn’t matter if we’re
  at the bottom of the market cycle yet. What matters is, can you find
  what you want? If you wait till it’s a good
  market and everyone’s buying, you won’t have as much choice or you’ll wind
  up paying a lot more to get what you want since there will be others out
  there going after the same properies.

Excerpt from Jeffrey Otteau, a real estate appraiser from East Brunswick,
N.J., “Welcome
to the Buyers’ Waiting Game,” by Kathleen Lynn, The Record (N.J.), Dec.
2, 2007.

• “From the consumers’ standpoint, it’s the old adage: whatever you
  are buying, buy low and sell high. The marketplace right now is saying
  that prices are low, in some places, very low, so why would you not be buying?”
• The thing
  that keeps me awake is I believe that there is tremendous opportunity in
  the current real estate marketplace… that I would just hate to have the
  average individual miss an opportunity like this. I don’t think we’ll ever
  see the
  hot market
  we saw a few years ago, but we’ll definitely see it bounce back, maybe even
  shoot up, and people will see some appreciation on their properties.
• Agents are looking
  to entice people from as far away as New Zealand, Russian, and China into
  buying homes in the United States. Europeans have a 45 percent discount
  on U.S.
  goods due to the strength of the euro against the dollar. Big exchange
  rate premiums
  that Canadians long paid just across the border were completely reversed
  this year and the Canadian Dollar is equal or slightly more valuable than
  the US Dollar. .
• Century 21 in Orange County, Calif. had a recent referral
  from China. A Texas agent is working with two different
  clients from
  the United Kingdom who want primary residences in a hot market in Texas. “The
  strength of their home currency against the U.S. dollar is most likely making
  their decision a little easier.”

Excerpt from Tom Kunz, president and CEO, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, “Century
21 Seeks Overseas Buyers of U.S. Homes,” by Lynn Adler, Reuters,
Dec. 12, 2007.

NAR says that the housing market is improving

• Job growth and the replacement of subprime lenders to borrowers with weak
  credit with government-backed loans were cited as reasons for the improved
  outlook. “Despite over-exaggerated negative coverage on the housing
  conditions, many local markets are actually seeing price increases. Mortgage
  availability is improving.”

– Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors®, “Housing
Market is Stabilizing, Optimistic Realtors Say,” by Alan Zibel, USA Today,
Dec. 10, 2007.