A few days ago, I commented about the uproar and retraction following Facebook’s attempt to clarify their terms of service so users would know what they post for others is no longer necessarily theirs. (Kristen Carr also has a post on the Facebook terms of service issues over at her new blog for Bridge Interactive.) I followed my earlier comment on the Facebook terms of service with a post asking whether CRM data is the broker’s or agent’s in the context of real estate.
It’s pretty clear from that post and the comments that followed that the contract between the broker and agent answers the question. I’ve never seen such a contract, however, and I’m wondering if they’d address some of the issues presented by consumer interactions allowed by current MLS, IDX and CRM systems. For example, imagine the following scenario:
Here are some of the questions:
It seems to me that, as before, the answer to these issues depends on the contracts involved, so what do yor contracts say on some of these issues? Do they address them at all? Is it important to address these issues?
9:16 am
When I worked at RMLS Darity Wesley was our attorney (she still is). Darity had RMLS create Subscriber and Participant agreements which outlined/detailed who owned what information. She also suggests very strongly to Brokers that they create agreements with their agents giving IP and all content over to the Broker.
That does not really address the questions you pose here. I’m not super familiar with the way Flex works but the other MLS systems I’ve used have all the contact info, saved searches, etc. associated with an Agent. I’m curious to see what the agent and broker community thinks on these issues. My impulse would be to say that info should follow the agent when the agent stays within the same geographical area (an agent moving from S. Florida to Fargo probably doesn’t need buyers info from S. Florida) but I can see where there could be a case for that info staying with the broker.
As always…great post!