A snarky, ignorant anonymous coward is sending a letter to some sellers in the Charlottesville area, the text of which follows. I have removed the identifiable information. (Grammatical errors are the letter writer’s.)
The part that gets me the most is the anonymity. If you feel so much conviction that you find the seller in the MLS, searching out their name(s) on the tax records and then sending a letter (who does that anymore?), why not attach your name to your efforts?
You are being ripped off by [a Realtor firm in Charlottesville]
[This Realtor] has opted your property out of all the MRIS & Charlottesville Mls’s IDX.
Therefore 1000’s of other realtors cannot show your property.
Are you aware of this?
Probably not …
Do you know what the mls IDX is?
If not ask your realtor …
They opt your property out of all the mls’s because of greed.
They want the total 5-6% commission and do not want to share it with other realtors.
99% of all Virginia real estate companies use the IDX to sell their listings.
Not [this company] …
If you were not aware of this …
We would recommend you fire them immediately and hire a real estate firm that shows your home on all the Virginia IDXs and cares about YOUR well-being.
This letter would make some sense if there were contact information anywhere encouraging the Sellers to contact a specific real estate firm. Lacking contact information, it comes across as ignorant and pointless.
I first heard of this letter when it was sent to a firm known to opt out of IDX on many of their listings, so I saw a tiny bit of rational thinking. Turns out, this letter has been sent to (apparently) many sellers in the Charlottesville area.
1000’s of other Realtors cannot show your property? Um … wrong. Completely, utterly and totally wrong.
They opt your property out of all the mls’s because of greed Um … wrong. Again.
Nobody’s opting out of the MLS. What may be done is the seller’s Realtor can opt out of having their listings displayed on thousands (really hundreds in Charlottesville) of other Realtors’ websites. (Like this one or this one). So … if the Realtor opts out of IDX their listings show up only on their websites, the local Realtor site and Realtor.com … but and maybe Zillow, Trulia and Cyberhomes …
Ignorant, pointless, cowardly … thanks for ruffling some feathers and wasting peoples’ time.
I’ve written about IDX quite a few times …
Why aren’t 100% of the listings in IDX?
A new Question for Sellers to Ask when Interviewing Listing Agents in Charlottesville
Update 30 September 2009: Moved to Sideblog.
Puzzling