An IDX feed is a common way to display listing data from your MLS on your website. They can be useful tools for promoting your real estate business to your clients and prospects. However, CRMLS has special rules in place for displaying its users’ listings through IDX feeds.

In September 2021, CRMLS launched the IDX Transparency Initiative. The initiative benefits brokers, agents, and real estate consumers by helping consumers understand the relationships between IDX sites and the listings they display. As part of this initiative, we at CRMLS revised our IDX rules, specifically those that govern display and listing credit requirements for IDX sites. This FAQ includes guidance on listing attribution and display, including recent rule changes affecting those components of IDX use, plus general IDX information.

1. What is an IDX feed?

IDX stands for “Internet Data Exchange.” It is a type of listing data feed that CRMLS provides so agents and brokers can display for sale and sold listings on their websites and applications.

A broker or agent may apply for a direct feed to use in building their own website. Many brokers and agents use an IDX vendor that provides technical services to brokers and agents, such as website construction or the hosting and maintenance of an IDX listing feed.

IDX feeds include listed properties in most of the statuses from the CRMLS coverage area, along with listings from the MLSs and Associations that have agreed to share their listing data with CRMLS. All of a broker’s listings will appear in the IDX feed unless that broker “opts out,” which means that the broker cannot display any other broker’s listings on their sites. As of this writing, CRMLS has no brokers that opt out of IDX.

2. What is an Advertising Broker?

An Advertising Broker is the broker who displays listings through an IDX feed.

Per Rule 19.2: “Any participant, including any Subscriber affiliated with the Participant, that inputs a listing into the MLS consistent with the MLS rules is a ‘Listing Broker.’ An ‘Advertising Broker’ means any Participant, including any Subscriber affiliated with that Participant, that uses the data feed to electronically display any information about a property filed with the MLS for which that Participant is not the Listing Broker.”

3. What is listing credit?

Use of an IDX feed to display another cooperating broker’s listings requires the Advertising Broker to meet certain conditions. Listing credit, or “attribution,” refers to the Listing Broker and Listing Agent information that IDX displays include. Whenever a website, application, or other electronic media displays a listing from a CRMLS IDX feed, the display must identify the listing broker and listing agent.

Per Rule 19.2.5: “All Listing Brokers grant permission for any Advertising Broker to display any listing submitted to the service by the Listing Broker only if the listing display or advertisement is clear so that a reasonable real estate consumer understands:

• Who is the Listing Agent and Broker;
• Who is the Advertising Broker, and;
• How to contact that Listing Agent or Broker.”

4. How should I display the Listing Broker’s information for a property I advertise?

Per Rule 19.2.5, listing attribution must display in such a manner so that it is clear to a reasonable real estate consumer who the Listing Agent and Broker are, who the Advertising Broker is, and how to contact the Listing Broker.

CRMLS has developed IDX Standards of Practice to assist Advertising Brokers with information on how to place and format listing attribution information. These standards are as follows:

IDX Standards of Practice

1. Attribution must be directly adjacent to either: Price, Bed/Bath, sq. ft. or Photo.
2. If Property Description is truncated to a reasonable size, AND it is directly adjacent to the Price, Bed/Bath, sq. ft. or Photo, then Attribution may be under the Property Description.
3. Attribution Font size must be no smaller than Property Description.
4. Attribution Font must be no lighter in color than Property Description.
5. Attributions must clearly label that they credit the Listing Broker, Listing Office, or Listing Agent. No use of “Courtesy of” or other unclear language.
6. Any Call-to-Action button, box, or link must specify which agent will be responding. Use of the word “Agent” alone is not compliant. There must be some clear indication that the contact information being provided is NOT going to the Listing Agent if applicable. This standard also applies to “Tour” home link or button.

Anyone building a website powered by CRMLS IDX should adhere to these specific guidelines. Click here to view the full IDX Standards of Practice document.

For additional clarity, please review the following explanations of these rules in simple language:

• Location of listing credit (attribution) on displays: The part of the IDX page that shows consumers the source of a listing must appear next to the listing fields that consumers are most likely to check. These fields include the property’s price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, or the main property photo. If the property description section next to a listing is short (as in, your IDX display automatically shortens descriptions) and next to one of those fields, you may display the listing credit information next to the property description instead.

• Legibility: The font your site uses to give the listing broker credit must be easy to read and hard to miss. Your IDX display should not conceal listing credit information from consumers. Specifically, the font for listing credit must be the same size as (or bigger than) the font for property descriptions. The listing credit font must also be as dark as (or darker than) the property description font.
• Clarity: The listing attribution text must clearly label the property’s Listing Broker, Listing Office, and/or Listing Agent. One of the most common examples of “credit” that does not comply with CRMLS policy is the phrase “Courtesy of…” This is ambiguous and does not clearly inform consumers of the relationship between the listing side and the property.

• Calls to action: Any call-to-action buttons, boxes, or links, including a “Tour home” link or button, must specify which agent will respond. Using a word like “Agent” or “Broker” instead of the agent or broker’s name does not give consumers enough information. If the contact information a consumer sees does not direct them to the Listing Agent, the display must clearly indicate this.

5. How can I be sure that the listing credit in my display satisfies the IDX rules?

If you or your IDX provider are unsure that your IDX display is sufficient, CRMLS’s Licensing and Legal teams are happy to review it and provide guidance. Reach out to us here for a consultation: [email protected].

6. Are there any examples of compliant listing credit displays that I can review?

While CRMLS cannot address every composition or design for an IDX site, the Standards of Practice and other information in Question 4 above should provide helpful guidance. CRMLS has also created a Listing Attribution presentation that includes sample visual representations. You can find it here: https://kb.crmls.org/knowledgebase/listing-credit-presentation/

7. What contact information do I need to include when I credit the Listing Broker in my IDX display?

Rule 19.2.5 requires the display to include information that informs the consumer how to contact the Listing Broker. CRMLS provides this contact information through a field named “IDXContactInfo” that it includes in the IDX data feed. The Advertising Broker must make this field, including whatever information Listing Brokers enter in it, in the contact information field that the public sees in the listing display.

8. Do I need permission from the Listing Broker to advertise a property in an IDX feed?

No. All listings that appear in the CRMLS IDX feed have prior permission from their Listing Brokers. Placing a listing in the MLS includes a grant of permission to include the listing in the IDX feed. If a Listing Broker does not want their listing to appear in the IDX feed, they must affirmatively “opt out” of IDX for all of their listings.

9. Do I need to include listing credit for all statuses that appear in IDX feeds?

Yes. Listing credit, as Rule 19.2.5 outlines it, must appear on all listing displays for all statuses available via an IDX feed.

Please check that the attribution you use on your IDX display complies with CRMLS Standards and the clarifications available in this FAQ and on our website. Clear IDX attribution benefits everyone in real estate, and clear attribution standards give the people who work with IDX a better framework for building these displays.

If you need additional help or have questions, please contact CRMLS Data Licensing via email at [email protected].