Information Advantage: The HAR Solution

Let’s get this straight from the start – No sales price data will be displayed to the public! Only a Realtor may provide Confirmed MLS sales data, and then only after a customer relationship has been established. In authorizing this new application of MLS Data the Board of Directors of Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR) and eHAR carefully considered possible abuses of the system and has implemented a set of safeguards to protect the public and the integrity of the MLS system.

How The New “Sold Search” Tool Will Work

A consumer will be able to search recent sales in way very similar to how they can currently search active listings. Once they select the HAR Sold Search Tool, they will be presented with a “search engine” screen that allows them to select search criteria like: number of bedrooms, bathrooms, ZIP code or MLS area, and a price range. The system then retrieves and display a brief summary of each home sale that meets those criteria. The display is very similar except that where an active listing displays a listing price, the HAR Sold Search Tool will display a price range for that specific home sale. If the user is interested in more information about a particular sale, then they can “click through” to the detail page for that home sale. Again this page will include the details similar to what the public will be able to see.

Take a look at the accompanying table to see an example of what information will be included in the HAR Sold Search Sales Detail Report.

Sales Prices information shall be reduced to specific ranges. The following table shows the stipulated ranges in which most HAR MLS sales will be categorized:

This program will have tremendous benefits to HAR MLS Realtors:

• It will be like leaving your sign in the yard for over a year after each sale! A “Sold” sign is the best advertising a REALTOR® can have. The HAR Sold Search Tool will identify the listing and buyers firm long after the sign has been plucked from the lawn. In some neighborhoods, consumers will be looking at these Sale Detail Reports over a year after the sale took place.

• Curious consumers will be directed to the REALTORS® who actually participated in the transaction. Both the Listing Broker and the Buyer’s Broker will receive attribution. If those brokers have web sites registered with HAR’s roster system, then the HAR Sold Search Tool will direct consumer inquires and drive traffic to those web sites.

• The Active Listings Will Be promoted. Since you can only receive a commission from a home that is for sale, the whole point of the HAR Sold Search Tool is to assist a prospective buyer in finding the home that is right for them.

• The HAR Sold Search Tools harnesses consumers’ natural curiosity about home sales and directs that curiosity to active REALTORS® and active listings.