A Virtual Office Website (VOW) is a web site that is used to conduct business activities. One example is a VOW used as a
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
property search site allowing the public to conduct searches of approved
multiple listing service properties in a given area under certain conditions. Also see
Virtual company.
Features
The VOW allows the public to:
#provide contact information
#agree to become a bona fide customer / client
#get a password protected private account
#describe property interest(s)
#and then conduct searches of all available
multiple listing service properties in a certain area.
Site users have to provide personal information before they can actually look at the listings. Also,
realtors who use VOW can choose to "opt out" from the local multiple listing service, which means that these realtors' properties will only be displayed to people who have signed in with the VOW.
The benefit to realtors is that registered users of their VOW web site become customers under contract. Registered users gain the benefit of more detailed information about each property and can generally see all available properties.
Regulation
Certain rules apply to the real estate companies ability to display each detail about a property, these "display rules" are set by the
multiple listing service which generally forms policy around the recommendations of the
National Association of Realtors.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors in September 2005 over the VOW policy, which they deemed as anti-competitive.
, the VOW policy has been replaced by a new
Internet Listing Display
Internet Listing Display (ILD) was a set of rules put forth by the National Association of National Association of Realtors in 2005 to regulate how homes and properties can be displayed on internet sites. The ILD policy was intended to consolidate ...
policy created by the National Association of
Realtors.
On May 27, 2008, NAR and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a favorable settlement, concluding a two-year DOJ investigation (followed by two and a half years of litigation) regarding NAR's multiple listing policy as it pertained to the display of listings from the MLS on brokers' virtual office Web sites, or VOWs.
See also
*
Internet Listing Display
Internet Listing Display (ILD) was a set of rules put forth by the National Association of National Association of Realtors in 2005 to regulate how homes and properties can be displayed on internet sites. The ILD policy was intended to consolidate ...
(ILD) – an abandoned policy that promised to replace VOW and IDX
*
Internet Data Exchange
An Internet Data Exchange (IDX, also known as Information Data Exchange) refers to the agreement between listing (Selling) Agents or Brokers and Buyers' Agents to display Multiple Listing Service properties online, across multiple websites (via ...
(IDX) – an older multiple-listing policy also being replaced by the ILD
*
Real Estate Transaction Specification (RETS)
*
Multiple listing service (MLS)
*
Real estate trends
A real estate trend is any consistent pattern or change in the general direction of the real estate industry which, over the course of time, causes a statistically noticeable change. This phenomenon can be a result of the economy, a change in mortg ...
*
Virtual office – for virtual business address or virtual offices
References
{{reflist
* ILD Polic
ILD Internet Listing Display policyRetrieved November 7, 2005
VOW Education Center
VOW Website ProviderVOW Website Internet search engines