IDX stands for internet data exchange. Whenever a real estate consumer goes to a real estate agent’s website and jumps on that agent’s home search page, the results from her search that she sees come from a data stream from the Board of REALTORS. This is IDX. If someone goes to REALTOR dot com or Austinhomesearch dot com, they see a similar stream of data, but that stream shows listing agent data.

An IDX search, like the Search Austin Homes feature on my website, shows my contact in the results, not the listing agent. Why? I think that the Board assumes that many people looking for an Austin home will not have representation when they first start looking on the internet. Sellers are represented by a listing agent. If a buyer goes to a site from a local Board, she sees listing agent contact information. The listing agent can not represent a buyer for his listing. So it makes sense that someone using an individual agent site like mine see contact information for a buyer’s agent.

The only frustrating part about this is that I get a lot of calls from people asking for detains about a particular home assuming that it is my listing. Most people are OK when I explain the reality to them and then look up the property, but some are actually a little irritated that I don’t have the information at the tip of my tongue. By the way, buyers really should get representation. There are a lot more reasons to use a buyer’s agent than to go it on their own.