Recently, a settlement between the Department of Justice and the National Association of Realtors enabled Redfin to get access to more information to display on their site.

More significantly, Redfin is adding up to 200 additional data fields thanks to last year’s settlement between the Department of Justice and the National Association of Realtors, which requires multiple listing services to make data available online and share it more broadly. Anything a real estate broker can tell a client can now be put online.

This is great news for all real estate agents.  Why?  Having access to more data will give you more tools to present to your clients online, while also giving consumers more information to better educate them while looking for a new home.  This settlement helps build your case when confronting your MLS about the data they won’t give to you (eg. sold data).

I don’t expect this to trickle down to all markets at all, but at least it provides justification for agents whose local MLS are overly restrictive on the amount of data that they’re allowed to display on their site.

Is your local Multiple Listing Service restrictive on the data they allow you to display?

Thanks goes out to TechCrunch for pointing this out today.

Settlement With DOJ Helps Redfin Get More Data was originally posted at TechForAgents.com - News, tools, and tips for techie real estate agents.