What is the purpose of your Classified Ads Site (or any classified ad site)? Ad revenue…

As long as you are not looking for a piece of the commission then most Realtors are not going to have a problem with your site. If you are, and are not a broker or Realtor – you will most likely run into legal problems in every state, unless you can convince the owner to de-list with their current Realtor (then you will just get everyone angry).

Will you need permission? I would ask — let them know that they are getting free advertising off of your site (remember – no commissions). You want to drive traffic not bad feelings. You might do a couple for display purposes only and email them so they can review.

I would market the site to both Realtors and owners as a free (for now) service.

Also, just expect that unless you are going to help them get those listing onto the site – they will probably not do it themselves. I look at craigslist all of the time for property and very few Realtors are using that free resource – and it has tons of traffic.

If you’re doing it for free, I can’t imagine them having a problem so long as you faithfully re-create the listing and list their contact info.

About the exclusive right to sell and advertising location posted by a previous answerer – that’s crap. Sine you’re not trying to function as a listing agent, there’s no harm no foul. Besides, plenty of the brokerages in my area have placed my listings on their website “Courtesy of My Broker”. As long as everyone involved is on the same page, you’re fine. Remember that the agent works as a representative of the broker. If the broker agrees to the advertising of the listings, then you don’t need the agent’s permission!
As far as location goes, I can advertise anywhere I think I’ll get business.

If the Realtor has an Exclusive Right to Sell Contract with the seller, hands off. You may want to approach the Brokers in your area to see if that would be something that they are interested in. The agent will have rules set by the broker as to where they are allowed to advertise. Good luck with your site. Sounds like a smart thing!

Edit***It is totally NOT crap. The exclusive right to sell IS between the Broker and the seller. That is why I said to approach the Broker. However, the contract may or may not spell out exactly where and when and which photos, etc are allowed to be placed. For example, I have sellers who have not wanted to have a sign in the yard, don’t want interior photos, don’t want to use certain advertising avenues, etc. The questioner could find himself in a bad spot if he doesn’t have this OK’d.

I would think if you had permission from the companies as well as whatever source you are using to obtain the information. Stealing content from another web site would be illegal.