Has Remine found a new way to launch a listing portal?

Greg,

Thanks again for sharing Remine’s story with your audience.

We’d like to clarify some of the misinformation and restate the facts:

– You can only see MLS data on Remine.com by invitation from an Agent, or from “matching” to an Agent.
– Agent invitations account for more than 90% of all traffic, and this is done easily from an Agent’s SOI (e.g. they can invite contacts from their phone or CRM). The most common invitation is when an Agent sets up their Client with a Saved Search. The benefit to the Client is the they get a unified search experience with their Agent, and the benefit to the Agent is they get to see their Clients feedback loop (e.g. what are they clicking on, sharing, liking, etc)
– Less commonly, we get organic visitors. They are not allowed to see any MLS data without “matching” to an Agent first. The first question we ask is always “Are you working with an Agent?” If yes, they simply select which one. In the rare case that they are not, then they go through our matching process. (Greg, this least common scenario, is what your experienced.)
– Our “matching” is based off of Agents who are dues paying members of the MLS, in good status, with active or recent transactions in that immediate area, and then randomized, hence why you saw different Agents. Remine does not collect any referral revenue from leads via Remine. This is simply an Agent benefit.
– And 100% of all consumers see their Agent’s attribution persistent throughout their experience so that Agent remains top of mind.
– PS. Gavin, no mortgage lenders have access to your leads. No one has access to your Clients information.

About Remine:

– Remine is a modern MLS platform for 51 MLS to more than 1 million Agents.
– Our mission is simple: We want to build the world’s best real estate technology for MLS’s, Brokers, Agents and their Clients.

If anyone would like more information, or to see a demo, please email me at mark@remine.com.

Signed up as a buyer. Selected myself as an agent. I didn’t get a notification that I had a new buyer. Hmm…

This example highlights the importance of MLS policy advancing beyond its current technologically specific framework.

Assuming Remine has permission from each MLS for this specific use case, they have put forth an example of how MLS data can be used in different ways to power innovation intended to benefit MLS participants outside traditional IDX/VOW functionality. Current IDX policy, by its definition, is narrow and bound to specific technology, limiting innovation.

A good blueprint to follow is the FTC’s Truth in Advertising law, which specifies simply that an advertisement must be truthful, not misleading, and, when appropriate, backed by scientific evidence, but is not bound to specific forms of advertising. It applies the same standards no matter where an ad appears.

IDX policy needs to evolve beyond technological constraints to focus on how brokers co-market MLS listings, to ensure co-marketing is truthful, not misleading, clearly identifies the listing firm and listing agent, and prevents brokers from modifying or manipulating information relating to other brokers listings. These same standards should apply regardless of — and without restricting — the type of technology a broker chooses to deploy their marketing.

As you point out in your post, It’s not clear whether this new Remine product would pass a “fair, truthful, and not misleading” standard. And until MLS policy evolves, new innovation will continue to push these boundaries and cause more debate.

Remine.com brings to the forefront a few things that MLS vendors have historically NOT been permitted to do:

1) display MLS data publicly, except through agent invitation;
2) capture consumer information for marketing purposes;
3) host MLS consumer portals on a proprietary URL gaining brand awareness and SEO for our own benefit.

As a legacy MLS vendor, I applaud Greg for bringing visibility and much needed dialogue to this seeming shift in vendor permissions. Our teams intend to fully participate in this conversation and engage with our customers and partners to ensure that we continue to evolve, to serve their needs, and meet their expectations.

As Greg properly noted, innovation is a great thing and everyone has a right to push for it. However, matching independent consumers generated on your portal with preselected individual agents to unlock complete MLS access is inconsistent with how MLS vendors are expected to operate and will not sit well with participants and subscribers.

Greg, I feel compelled to follow-up more pointedly. I cannot let the implications that sit beneath your post go unchallenged.

We did not earn the trust of over 50 MLS partners – people we work with and for every day – by playing games with their data.

We earned that trust by adding value. Creating better software faster. Listening to them, responding, and never sitting still.

Do we make mistakes? Sometimes move too fast? Assume we are communicating fully when we can do better?

Guilty as charged.

But the reality is that incumbency and stagnation doesn’t work for the MLS community anymore. As an entrepreneur whose own business was predicated on the idea of doing things better than the old software, the old solutions, you know that.

Now, the details:

The flow you point out above does present some bugs. And the truth is it is not a significant element of the Remine platform. We have deactivated it and will activate it again only in cases where an MLS partner wants that and we can tailor the flow to their specific preferences.

As you often say, “we are all in this together.” We respect your commitment to the MLS industry and community.

Please understand that we share it.