Technology Evaluation & Selection

Having grown up in the MLS business and seeing it evolve from the days when we replaced books with MLS systems to today, where MLS sales are only made through taking a competitor’s account, I know how competitive the MLS technology landscape is.  Over the past 20 years or so, we have also seen this market mature and with that maturation we have also seen intense price pressure placed on our MLS vendors to the point today where I question whether we have gone too far.  MLS vendors today are the cornerstone of our entire real estate technology industry.  Nothing works without them, not Realtor.com, not Zillow, not all of the IDX sites, etc.,  and yet the receive a tiny per member fee per month compared to many fees paid by brokers and agents for relatively “lighter” products that rely on their MLS database to exist.  Even so,  there are individuals throughout our MLS business that continue to innovate and look for ways to raise the bar for everyone in our industry.  Michael Wurzer at FBS is a great example of this type of innovation as evidenced by their recent blog on creating an API to be used to track consumer viewing activity on listings, even beyond their MLS product.

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Since the announcement made by NAR on the formation of RPR and their public rollout at the NAR conference in San Diego, RPR and their proposed business model has been a major topic of conversation in MLSs across the U.S.  Some MLSs seem to think this is an idea long overdue while others have expressed “no interest” while most seem to be somewhere in between with a “wait and see” attitude.

c planning session we facilitated for a major MLS the topic of RPR participation was, of course, discussed.  Our approach to the discussion, as with any business issue, is to try to take the hype and emotion out of the discussion to look at it for what it is, a business decision.  To that end, we believe there are several points each MLS might consider as they decide whether RPR makes sense for them or not.  This is not intended to serve as a full review of the RPR opportunity but we hope it at least presents some questions to stimulate your MLS discussions. Click on the following link to download the paper.

Download RPR - Paper

MARKETLINX LAUNCHES MOBILE MLS AUDIO SEARCH
–VoicePad Technology Lets Agents “Search Any Home from Any Phone™"–
 
SANTA ANA, Calif., Jan. 11, 2010 MarketLinx, Inc., a leading provider of information technology to the residential real estate industry and a member of The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF) family of companies, announced today that it has partnered with VoicePad® to offer a mobile audio search tool to its MLXchange™, TEMPO™ and InnoVia™ multiple listing service (MLS) customers.
Called VoiceLinx, the solution allows MarketLinx MLS users to hear spoken listing information from any mobile phone simply by calling a local phone number and entering the propertys street name or house number. The system can describe listing details in both English and Spanish, and does not require text messaging, a mobile Web browser or wireless data plan.

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For the past four years, Technology Concepts, a veteran MLS provider, has been developing a Customer Relationship Management product for the real estate industry.  The company has leveraged their experience serving MLSs, brokers and agents to architect and build one of the industry’s most advanced enterprise level CRM solutions. 

The product, named Eventus, is operational, installed and has realized outstanding results for the first tier users.  Now that the product is ready for full deployment into the market place, the company is seeking a business partner to fuel marketing and fulfillment.  The company will consider options from company or product sale to an exclusive licensing relationship.   Interested parties should contact WAV Group, attention Mike Audet (mike@wavgroup.com, 716-839-4628) for more information. 

About the product.

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Instanet Solutions, based in London, Ontario recently announced the addition of industry veteran Steve Mapes as their new Vice President of Sales.  Joe Kazzoun, who previously ran the sales group has taken on the position of Vice President, Business and Product Development.  Martin Scrocchi, CEO and owner of Instanet Solutions tells us that growth throughout their product line mandated the change.  “With our growing customer base, the increasing interest in Transaction Management products and businesses wanting to go “Green", the timing to bring Steve on was perfect.  We are also excited because this addition means Joe can focus on customer service, the successful delivery of our products and ongoing product developement.”

Click to see the full press release

Steve Mapes started his career in the real estate industry with PRC Realty Systems and most recently was managing a number of products for MRIS, the largest MLS in the U.S.