What is INTERNET DATA EXCHANGE?

Simply: Internet Data Exchange or IDX is a system where brokers give each other permission to display their listings on each other’s web sites.  Brokers who participate in the program are called Internet Data Exchange Subscribers or IDXSs can display each other’s active listings on their web sites.  Listings are compiled from all IDXSs to create the Internet Data Exchange Database or IDX Data.  If you choose not to participate, no other broker will be permitted to display your listings and you cannot display theirs.  You can include your listings in the IDX Data without even having your own web site.  (See Section 9 – Frequently Asked Questions for an explanation why you would want to do this.)

Why is THE CMLS doing Internet Data Exchange?

The purpose of IDX is to empower brokers to deal with the real estate consumer of the future.  Among the objectives to which the CMLS is committed are: 1) permitting brokers to fully market their services on the Internet; 2) permitting the brokerage community to take advantage of the data brokers have contributed to the system; and 3) permitting brokers to obtain and maintain first contact with the consumer in the real estate transaction.  Increasingly, consumers are looking to the Internet for information about real estate for sale.  Until IDX, they were not finding that information at broker-owned web sites.  Brokers have not maintained the sites with the best data and from the consumer’s perspective that means the most data.  On the national front, sites such as REALTOR.COM maintain hundreds of thousands of listings.

Some brokers have asked the CMLS, "Why can't a broker web site be the place with the most listings?"  Thanks to IDX, it can! This approach provides several advantages:

• Brokerage IDX web sites can become the best source of listing data.  Assuming most brokers participate, the number of listings in the database can easily reach and even exceed the number found on the popular national sites. This will encourage buyers to search local IDX web sites instead of the national sites when looking for area properties.
• When consumers visit a broker’s IDX web site, they are likely to stay longer because the site will have more data to offer.
• Since many of the national sites are “cluttered” with non-listing content, consumers often find broker web sites have interfaces that are easier to navigate.
• The benefits received from marketing programs aimed at driving consumers to a broker’s web site should significantly increase when the IDX Data is included.

These are expected to be critical success factors as the industry becomes more innovative in offering on-line services.

HOW DOES MY FIRM PARTICIPATE IN INTERNET DATA EXCHANGE?