Introduction to IDX

The Internet has redefined how real estate brokers do business. One of the more important developments is to enable brokers to display listings of all homes for sale in their area from their websites. This allows brokers to become information providers as well as service providers.

The advantage of the Internet data exchange (IDX) is that it enables website owners to keep visitors from leaving their site to go to other sites in order to see all of the properties available in a market area. According to one statistic, visitors remain on websites with IDX for approximately 20 minutes, whereas they remain for less than 5 without IDX.

Typically, brokers can either frame or link to an outside source, which is usually the MLS’s public website or another aggregate listing site. IDX allows brokers the option of presenting the data on their own website without linking or framing another site. This is a more expensive option because brokers must build their own listing databases.

Framing or “smart framing” is the more popular choice, according to one IDX technology vendor . With "smart framing", the framed website is aware of the site framing it and offers specific content accordingly. Building their own listing databases requires participants to download the listing data and find their own way to create a searchable and fully-functioning website.

(to be continued)