Tom Flanagan

IT Director

The VOW Settlement

Posted by tflan under Posts

VOW SettlementBack on May 27, 2008, the NAR settled with the Department of Justice regarding its policy with VOW’s (Virtual Office Websites). The case was in litigation for over two years. I just finished watching the video update from NAR president Dick Gaylord and reading the convoluted revised Virtual Office Website Policy. The revised policy can be found here. Here’s a run down of the new policy:

  • IDX applications / solutions were not affected, just VOW’s
  • VOW participants not only have to have a Brokers license, they have to actively participate in the MLS and the Real Estate process.
  • Users have to agree to the Terms of Use of the VOW system and have a registered account with valid email address.
  • The Registrant must supply a user name and password.
  • Listings displayed on a VOW must clearly identify the listing firm.
  • The new policy will formally take place somewhere around Labor Day.

On a side note, if you’re as confused as I am regarding the correct grammatical use of “NAR vs. DOJ vs. VOW” visit: “Abbreviation vs. Acronym vs. Initialism“.

Here’s the Podcast DOJ update: