Real Estate IDX Explained

Real Estate IDX is actually a protocol that came about to further the concept of cooperating broker compensation through allowing members of the same MLS Board to advertise each-others listings on the internet.

Cooperating Broker compensation where the listing agent (seller’s agent) agrees to pay the selling agent (buyer’s agent) an amount of commission (a flat fee, or percentage), upon the closing of a real estate sale – should the cooperating agent bring the buyer to the closing table.

Where there is the flow of money there is a flow of data.

Stu Hill

Real Estate IDX Has Created The Market For Buyers’ Agents

The concept of IDX creates a market for buyers’ agents. It also exponentially increases the exposure to any given property listed for sale in a particular market.

Here is an example of a google search for an address one of our clients currently has listed for sale: 4925 LOST CREEK LANE, LEAGUE CITY, TX 77573. As you will note, through Real Estate IDX data sharing the MLS’s system is pushing the listing data which is feeding the majority of the 16,300 other results.

The Common Mistake with IDX

IDX is an agreement between Realtors subscribing to an MLS Board/Association. This Real Estate IDX agreement states that members of the MLS Board authorize other members of the same MLS Board to advertise their listings on the internet.

IDX is commonly mistaken for beign the display of listings on your for example on your wordpress idx webiste; when, it is actually the agreement that allows you to display listings on your website.

Before IDX

Back before the internet or IDX existed each real estate association used to have big books (binders) of real estate listings that agents could come in and view and add too. These books were typically updated once a week.

Agents could “Xerox” pages from the book, or manually write information to provide to their clients about prioerties they might be interested in purchasing.