What is Internet Data Exchange (IDX) website?
Be Happy! Realty “Search the MLS” website is an example of Internet Data Exchange (IDX) website.
In accordance with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Rules and Regulations, a MLS network can create an Internet Data Exchange (IDX), a datafeed that its participating brokers may use for their individual websites.
Broker IDX websites enable home sellers to get greater exposure for their listings, and enable home buyers to search listings, on both national IDX websites and local-area broker IDX websites.
According to a NAR survey of home buyers and sellers, broker IDX websites were among the top three (3) most popular websites searched by buyers, with forty percent (40%) of buyers conducting their home searches on these websites.
In addition, most MLS networks contribute their IDX datafeed to popular, publicly-accessible websites like Realtor.com, the official website of the National Association of Realtors.
Although these IDX websites provide critically important avenues for brokers to advertise their listings to potential buyers and their agents, these websites are not a substitute for the MLS.
In contrast to a Virtual Office Website (VOW) and to brokers' "brick and mortar" offices, websites that rely on an IDX datafeed contain less information than the actual MLS database, and that information may be out of date.
If a broker opts to not participate in the IDX, which the MLS Rules and Regulations allow, none of the broker's listings are included on the IDX datafeed, and he or she cannot operate a website based on an IDX datafeed. Therefore, IDX datafeeds may contain fewer available listings than the actual MLS database.
IDX datafeeds can be less complete than the actual MLS database for the following reasons:
- Each MLS determines which datafields to include in the IDX datafeed
- It is not uncommon for MLS networks to withhold the home address, a critical piece of information for brokerage clients, from the IDX datafeed
- Some MLS networks also withhold such datafields as the detailed description of the home or the property disclosures
- IDX-based websites often will be missing some homes that recently have been listed for sale and include some that are no longer for sale because there often is a delay between an update of MLS data and when those changes are reflected in the IDX datafeed
Among the most popular websites used by home buyers in their searches were Realtor.com (fifty two percent (52%) of respondents), MLS websites (fifty three percent (53%) of respondents), and real estate company websites (forty one percent (41%) of respondents).
Features ranked as most useful among home buyers searching for a home on the internet were photos (identified as “very useful” by eighty three percent (83%) of home buyers), detailed property information (eighty one percent (81%) of home buyers), and virtual tours (sixty percent (60%) of home buyers).
Brokers surveyed by NAR cite the internet more frequently than any other method, including yard signs, as a way to market homes.