UpstreamRE is switching vendors

From UpStreamRE.com

Upstream Charts New Direction

“Upstream’s leadership paired its discussions with NAR with a review of various options for powering the Upstream project in 2019 and beyond. With the completion of RPR’s development of the Upstream system that process is now complete and Upstream has selected a new vendor well positioned to deliver Upstream’s industry-wide platform and at a speed of implementation necessary to secure significant adoption during the coming year. Upstream expects to announce the name of the new vendor in January 2019 soon after final negotiations on a definitive agreement are complete.”

15 million dollars, gone. No talk about whether or not NAR members will ever be paid back.

Last time we heard from UpstreamRE (May 18) they were about to “add to five to six markets per month”

What a shit show.

And now this Upstream mess is starting to leak out to the main stream media, check out this article from “The Real Deal”.

NAR vs. the naysayers
The nation’s most powerful real estate trade association has poured millions into tech, but some say it may be too little, too late.

In the article Alex Lange seems to throw NAR (via RPR) under the bus,

“Upstream’s Lange, who took over in 2016, acknowledged that while the work is complex, Realtors Property had taken “entirely too long to build this.” But, he said, because Realtors Property was “building it for me for free, I kind of have to go with it.””

But, the last line of the article might be the most prophetic…

““It’s hard not to lose face if you just back away now,” he said. “Yet there isn’t a face-saving option that’s available.”

Ya think??

So who is this mystery “new vendor”? Doesn’t appear an RFP was ever sent out. In a correspondence to brokers, sent from UpstreamRE CEO Alex Lange, stated….

We targeted a new partner that will multiply our acceleration technically, geographically and politically.

Has anyone at UpstreamRE ever heard of under promise, over deliver?

The only vendor that make sense would be a vendor like CoreLogic, but wouldn’t that kind of conflict with there existing MLS provider partnerships? Or maybe a newer vendor like Remine or Homesnap. Taking Upstream on would be a huge distraction for either of them. Remine is launching their “MLS 2.0” product and Homesnap is still trying to figure out how to let consumers search for homes with pools.

The spot light on any vendor would be pretty bright. And for what? A way for brokers to be sued by the DOJ for anti-trust?