Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

CALMLS selects Concentric Software to power rumored California Statewide MLS

CALMLS
CALMLS


I don’t know where to begin with this one. I’m like a kid in a candy store!

First off you have to read the latest press release about CALMLS from the California Association of REALTORS (C.A.R.) Check it out here.

Two things stuck out at me right away. In fact the very first thing was the first paragraph of the press release.

“The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) today announced that CALMLS, the statewide Multiple Listing Service (MLS) initiative, has selected Rocklin, Calif.-based Concentric as its technology partner in California. Concentric was selected following an extensive vetting process that included input from REALTORS® and other stakeholders statewide. Platform-and browser-neutral, Concentric’s Web-based system performs substantially faster than any product on the market.”

Let’s break it down, shall we…

“Concentric was selected following an extensive vetting process that included input from REALTORS® and other stakeholders statewide”

The sentence should have read.

“Concentric was selected when no other MLS vendor in the industry would touch them with a 10 foot pole.”

This is even better…

“Platform-and browser-neutral, Concentric’s Web-based system performs substantially faster than any product on the market.”

REALLY?, “substantially faster than any product on the market”, REALLY?? Ummmm, WTF? Who uses Concentric’s web-based system? I don’t think anyone does? So how the hell does it perform “substantially faster than any product” out there?

So you wander over the the Concentric website and it gets more interesting. Looks like the team consists of old Rapattoni alum, Richard Igou and back from the dead Bret “Wieiner” (note to the guy running the Concentric website, you might want to spell your CIO’s name correctly it’s Bret Wiener, W-I-E-N-E-R, got it?) plus Warren Andrich.

I remember Bret from back in the day and he is a solid guy, and from what I’ve heard Richard is no slouch either. So it sounds like they have a good team. All I can say is good luck.

From what I can tell Art Carter and the CARETS group have already implemented what CAR wants to accomplish and there are other solutions out there such as MLS Alliance (an eNeighborhoods product). So CAR members already have good choices. So, where’s the pony?

And here is the second thing I found pretty funny about the press release.

“CALMLS also debuted new branding for the products and services offered by the statewide MLS entity. These now will be branded as calREDD™, an acronym for California Real Estate Dynamic Data.”

calREDD? I guess they couldn’t use CREDD, because that’s what the agents and brokers will do when they get the bill for this “solution in search of a problem”, – “See Red”.

  1. Rich and Bret gave me a demo of “EvolutionMLS” at midyear, it is billed as “a state of the art Web 2.0 RIA (Rich Internet Application) that harnesses the Adobe Flex development platform”. It did things that no other MLS system did, but I was worried that it required way too much local computing power. I wish them luck.

    David

  2. Greg, Your new Vendor Alley name needs to be SAWMI. You are the Chris Berman of the Real Estate Industry. CAL MLS is rumblin, stumblin, bumblin their way through the MLS buiness.

  3. Pingback: Is Rapattoni suing Concentric Software? « Vendor Alley

  4. Pingback: CalREDD has Fresno MLS members seeing RED. « Vendor Alley

  5. FRESNO>>>CalREDD/Concentric is any realtors worse nightmare! Our Board, NOT the members, chose this company. It came on line, Monday, August 17th…and it WAS and STILL is a disaster! This company has a long way to go before they are ready to begin to compete with Rapattoni.
    We (a large number of unhappy Realtors) had a “Town Hall” meeting last night, and after listening to the President of Concentric, Richard Igou, it almost appears his drive for this new system and company is more about his negative attitude regarding Rapattoni than it is about making our MLS system more efficient? He knew the system was not ready to launch and yet he went ahead and brought it on line…with absolutely no regard as to how
    it would “cripple” the Real Estate Agents, many who are struggling as it is and also during one of the busiest month of the year. Our President, Board of Directors and the MLS committee are as much to blame as Mr. Igou, as they obviously did not do a much if any “beta” testing and NOW feel the more agents that use the system the faster the “glitches” and features will be solved, therefore they have refused to bring Rapattoni back on board. (and our contract is still good with Rapittoni and they are willing to bring us back on…)

    I sincerely hope this information helps another “MLS Board” to do a complete “due diligence” on this company and it’s founders as well as beta test the system before making a firm commitment on using it! I wish I would have done some a “simple” Google search on this company….before today. The Phrase “guinea pig” seems to be appropriate for our Members at this time.

  6. WOW!!!

    Here is what is happening in Fresno.

    Fresno MLS Urgent Notice

    Greetings!

    We would like to thank you all for your patience and efforts in making the conversion to calREDDTM as positive as possible. In keeping with our commitment to the membership to monitor the progress of calREDDTM, the FAR Board of Directors held a special meeting to discuss the status of the MLS in Fresno. At this meeting the Board of Directors made the decision, based upon input from the membership, to return to Rapattoni as soon as practically possible.

    The decision to return to Rapattoni was made with the membership’s best interest in mind. As a result of this decision, please DO NOT input or modify any information in calREDDTM effective immediately. Your access to Rapattoni will be restored by 4:30pm today, September 1st, at which point you may begin inputting and revising listings.

    Regrettably we will be unable to automatically transfer any listings which were inputted into the calREDDTM system back into Rapattoni, which means listings entered on August 17th or later will need to be re-entered. Also any changes made to ANY listings directly from calREDDTM will need to be made in Rapattoni.

    Should you require assistance making changes to listings that were previously made in calREDDTM, please fax your listing change forms to FAR. In addition the Fresno MLS listing input sheets will be restored to the FAR website.

    Members may experience some down time with any services provided by 3rd party RETS or IDX vendors. In addition it will take REALTOR.COM a minimum of two weeks to restore the Fresno MLS data feed to working order.

    We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused, and appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition.

    Regards,

    The FAR Board of Directors

    Jared Martin – President, George Mees – President Elect, Julie Caglia, Sandy Darling, Susan Davis, Anthony Gamber – Treasurer, Dan Hawkins – MLS Chairperson, Lynn Heintz, Andy Nazaroff, Ken Neufeld, Brent Patch, Jim Whitlach

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