Trulia provided WAV Group with information about their Trulia Direct Reference product today. They have 3 MLSs who intend to put the solution into beta. The goal of the program is to improve data accuracy at Trulia by accessing a data file from the MLS to match against the Trulia data set. WAV Group has echoed the outspoken disappointment that brokers have about data quality on third party websites. This program provides a thesis to help clear up the problem, but questions remain – namely – will the MLS data trump other business rules? Will participation in the program remove competing brokers appearing on a broker’s listing? How does Trulia license the data and what are the limitations of its uses? The service is free to the MLS.
More to come on this – 1000Watt offered an interesting perspective –
Based upon this quote on the 1000Watt blog regarding Trulia Direct Reference, it is unclear how the industry will respond or embrace.
“If you are an MLS and believe that your secret sauce is quality data, or perhaps have visions of a public-facing website, you’re essentially washing your competitors dirty car with your secret scrub-brush for free.”
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