The board of directors of the Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service said Thursday it had voted to remove the listings from the site.

CincyMLS.com has acted as a clearinghouse for eight years to show the houses listed by Realtors for sale in the area. It allows viewers to see what's for sale in different neighborhoods and what different real estate companies are listing, to compare prices and check the condition of a home.

Sandra Butler, president of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors, said CincyMLS.com was created in 1996, when most real estate companies did not have Web sites.

Today, brokerages are able to place nearly every home for sale in the region on their company sites, she said.

"There is a misconception out there that people (will) have to visit each Realtor firm's Web site to see what's on the market," Butler said. "But up to 98 percent of the current and pending MLS inventory can be viewed on any firm's site that displays the MLS listings."

Beginning in January, CincyMLS.com users instead will be able to visit any of the 58 local real estate brokerages' Web sites to shop for homes.

Cincinnati Realtor Ed Rothenberg said the move would confuse consumers. He said he was organizing a group of about 100 Realtors who will meet today to discuss a lawsuit challenging the changes.

"The big thing is that you will be steered and influenced by the companies' Web sites that you go to," he said.

The Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service typically has roughly 15,000 listings daily covering Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clermont and Brown counties. CincyMLS.com typically gets 6,000 to 8,000 users a day.

The new CincyMLS.com site will include:

• Listings of open houses.

• A roster of real estate brokerages to help consumers find an agent.

• Information on the benefits of living in the region and facts on schools.

• Easy ways to help people calculate mortgages.

E-mail jmckinney@enquirer.com