In September 2021, CRMLS launched the IDX Transparency Initiative. The initiative aims to benefit brokers, agents, and real estate consumers by helping consumers understand the relationships between IDX sites and the listings they
display.
Consistent with the Initiative’s goals, this document provides the standards of practice for IDX displays. Anyone building a website powered by CRMLS IDX should adhere to these specific guidelines.
IDX Standards of Practice
- Attribution must be directly adjacent to either: Price, Bed/Bath, sq. ft. or Photo.
- 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. - Attribution Font size must be no smaller than Property Description.
- Attribution Font must be no lighter in color than Property Description.
- Attributions must clearly label that they credit the Listing Broker, Listing Office, or Listing
Agent. No use of “Courtesy of” or other unclear language. - 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
Explanations
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.
Please check that the attribution you use on your IDX display complies with these standards. Clear IDX attribution benefits everyone in real estate, and clear attribution standards will 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].