Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

TAR says no to HAR

shoot in footAndrea V. Brambila for Inman News

Texas Realtors won’t provide member info to competing statewide Realtor site, HAR.com

“Last week, in a 23-to-16 vote, TAR’s executive board rejected a motion from HAR that would have had TAR send HAR a data feed, updated daily, of TAR’s membership roster, complete with names and contact information. In the motion HAR said it would have paid any costs associated with providing the feed and promised not to use the list to solicit TAR members to join HAR or its MLS.”

HAR is asking for membership information, not listing data. And they’ll pay all implementation costs. Seems like a no-brainer. Especially cause…

“Nationally, HAR.com was the 19th most visited real estate site in June with 1.32 million unique visitors in June, according to comScore. By contrast, comScore does not track TexasRealEstate.com’s traffic because the site doesn’t meet a threshold of around 50,000 unique visitors per month.”

emphasis mine.

“TAR suggested that, instead of a data feed, TAR could offer HAR a widget that would pull in profile information from TexasRealEstate.com when consumers search for Realtors on HAR.com. The information would appear in framed results, giving TexasRealEstate.com a traffic boost. TAR has not yet developed the suggested widget.”

LOL, “a widget”. The guys at Zillow and Trulia are laughing there asses off right now.

Wilmington Regional AOR switching to ShowingTime

About time…

_______________________________________________________________

WILMINGTON REGIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® PARTNERS WITH SHOWINGTIME TO PROVIDE APPOINTMENT CENTER SERVICES TO MEMBERS

NEW SERVICE TO LAUNCH BY JANUARY 7TH, 2014

Chicago, IL – January 6, 2014—The Multiple Listing Service of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors® announced today that it selected ShowingTime, the real estate industry’s leading showing management technology provider, to provide appointment center services for its 1,650+ Realtor® members beginning Tuesday, January 7.

“The ShowingTime Appointment Center’s extended hours, two-way text messaging capabilities, branded calls and emails, and overall use of technology to automate the scheduling process is exciting,” said MLS President Sandy Beals. “I am looking forward to a long relationship with ShowingTime. I am so confident they will exceed members’ expectations.”

ShowingTime’s technology-rich Appointment Center, along with its online scheduling system available 24/7 in the MLS, will enable WRAR members to call to schedule showings from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time, seven days a week, or login to the MLS anytime to schedule showings. Members can also use smart phones, tablets and the ShowingTime Mobile App to request and manage showings and feedback.

ShowingTime products – currently used to schedule more than 2 million showings per month in more than 190 markets representing 400,000+ real estate professionals – use technology to improve efficiency and streamline the appointment scheduling process, resulting in quicker showing confirmations and less phone tag. The Multiple Listing Service of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors® is ShowingTime’s 70th market-wide subscribing customer.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors®,” said ShowingTime President Michael Lane. “WRAR members will have access to many unique features that will help them be effective, including our patented two-way text messaging system for homeowner approval of showings. Our services will equip the members of WRAR to provide great service to buyers and sellers.” he added. “We’re also pleased to be able to offer job opportunities to many of the appointment specialists from the prior showing service that lost their jobs prior to the holidays.”

About ShowingTime
ShowingTime equips MLSs, Associations, offices, brokers and agents with tools to schedule showings, generate feedback and report on activity. Its products are used by more than 6,000 offices nationwide and integrated with 190+ MLSs to manage two million showings every month. Visit http://www.showingtime.com for more information.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Tom Denk, ShowingTime, 312-568-8001 x130 tdenk@showingtime.com

eShowings – the drama continues….

This story just keeps getting more bizarre. Charles Smith, former CEO of eShowings, is about to head to jail. Charles had the brilliant idea of not paying payroll taxes and pocketing the money. Now his wife is taking over the company.

Andrea Brambila of Inman News:

“Lanouette Smith is the wife of eShowings founder and former CEO Charles Smith. Lanouette Smith was on the payroll before the company shut down, but did not have an official title or duties at the company, according to several former employees.”

Wait, what?

It also seems like former employees (or current?) that were ripped off by the company have taken matters in the their own hands.

Andrea Brambila of Inman News:

“Lanouette Smith said eShowings had been the target of a “purposeful and planned destruction” that included the robbery and theft of payroll checks in one office, communication of misinformation to employees in both call centers, unauthorized and inaccurate communication to clients, and “sabotage” to call center equipment and computer systems in Newark.”

Sabotage indeed. Seems like the real sabotage began with Mr. Smith didn’t pay his payroll taxes.

Meanwhile, this leaves their largest client, the Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS, in a lurch. Who for some insane reason are still using eShowings.

The answer,to all the problems clients of eShowings are having, can be solved very quickly. Find a new vendor. There are a few out there. Here’s a start:

Michael Lane
President
ShowingTime
mlane [at] showingtime dot com
312-222-9780

You’re welcome.

Deep dive into Dotloop vs CAR saga

Not sure how I missed this article on Inman News last week. Paul Hagey does an excellent job of reporting. I love the use of video in the article too. It features two interviews, one with Joel Singer, CEO of the California Associaiton of REALTORS (CAR) and Austin Allison, CEO of Dotloop. But the premise of the article remains unclear.

ZipLogix competitors never had a shot at licensing CAR forms

At the beginning the article states:

“Brokers and agents who want to fill out the California Association of Realtors’ (CAR) electronic forms in software other than the solutions offered by its for-profit subsidiary are out of luck, because of a long-term exclusive license the subsidiary granted its own software firm, zipLogix LLC, when it acquired the firm more than a decade ago.”

But later…

“CAR declined to provide details about which “authoritative bodies” approved its agreement with zipLogix to exclusively license its electronic forms, or exactly when they did so.

Although Singer says CAR’s 150,000-plus members have the power to authorize other firms to license the association’s electronic forms, some members say it’s unclear how the decision-making process works.”

My guess is CAR can do anything it wants, and it doesn’t want to play ball with Dotloop.

Mary Lou Williams of CRISnet/Southland Regional Association is retiring.

Mary LouMary Lou has been with Southland Regional Assn./MLS for over 29 years. 29 years! A little piece of MLS trivia: Mary Lou was around when SRAR introduced the first Window’s based MLS system. That MLS system was based on Wyldfyre (now owned by Homes.com). Please join me in congratualting Mary Lou on her retirment and wishing her the best of luck.

Walt Baczkowski takes CEO position at San Francisco Assn. of REALTORS.

The San Francisco Association of REALTORS is Pleased to Announce the Appointment of Walter T. Baczkowski Jr., CAE, RCE as Its Chief Executive Officer

“SFAR President Jeffery Woo stated, “SFAR is fortunate to have been able to attract such an experienced CEO with a proven track record of leadership and accomplishment. As SFAR continues its mission of service to our REALTOR® members and toward the promotion of homeownership, we look forward to Walt’s guidance and management of the Association in a technologically and politically changing world.”

Big congratulations go out to Walt. He is going to have his hands full!

Greater Ft. Lauderdale Assn. and Miami Association of REALTORS settle.

As reported here the Greater Ft. Lauderdale and Assoication of REALTORS (RAGFL) sued the Miami Association of REALTORS (MAR) for…

“Through its false and deceptive advertising and other contact MAR has brazenly sought to drive and has driven members away from RAGFL and diverted new members from joining RAGFL thereby causing damages to RAGFL,” says the complaint, which alleges violations of the Lanham Act.”

In a short letter issued today it appears the shit storm has passed. As both parties have agreed to a “confidential Settlement Agreement”. I’m hoping to see Rick and Teresa hug it out in Orlando at The Peabody Hotel as the ducks walk by.

Fun in Beverly Hills….

There is a trend I’m beginning to see with MLS providers. MLS providers are beginning to host what I call the “mini conference”. Not a full blown trade show but smaller event that are based on presentations and a few vendors.

Lisa Powell

It’s hard to pull these off, you need to get the members excited about coming (this means lots of good food) and few good speakers.

I’m at the “MLS Madness” event today, hosted by The MLS/CLAW. Lisa Powell and her team have done a great job of putting together a fun event. They even got Katie Lance of Inman News to speak!

The last two “trade shows” we have attended have been complete duds. I had to pay for a power drop, carpet, waste paper basket, etc… So, I’m hoping this mini-conference trend continues.

South Florida Sh*t Storm

This will be fun to watch!

‘Fort Lauderdale Realtor Group sues Miami Realtor Group’

The South Florida Business Journal reports things are heating up in South Florida.

“Through its false and deceptive advertising and other contact MAR has brazenly sought to drive and has driven members away from RAGFL and diverted new members from joining RAGFL thereby causing damages to RAGFL,” says the complaint, which alleges violations of the Lanham Act.

I can’t believe they cited the “Lanham Act”.

The MLS system landscape and the MLS Vendor of the future.

A few thoughts about what I’ve been hearing and observing about the state of MLS systems and vendors

Flash’s dead, baby.

I’ve written about the problems and issues of some MLS vendors MLS platforms be written in Flash. and now this, Adobe announced they will no longer continue to develop a Flash version for mobile devices. So to me the debate ends here, MLS vendors who’s new versions rely upon Flash have two choices. Develop a separate HTML5 or equivalent version of their MLS system or create separate “native” versions of their MLS systems that run on mobile devices (iPhone, Droid, iPad, etc.). Either prospects are not great, but….

I’ve seen Discover MLS’ offering and now recently got a sneak peak at LPS’s REinsight new MLS system and was impressed (both are built using Flash). They not only look great, from a UI perspective, but there is some real innovation going on. One of things that struck me about LPS’s REinsight was the blending of the LPS public records data along with MLS data. This is great for creating all inclusive CMAs and other reports. Plus from a map search perspective you can see an MLS listing and also click on the property next to it (that might not be in the MLS database) and up pop public records data, which is super cool. One database, no need to exit out of the MLS system and log in to a separate app, the data is all on the same map/listing view.

I haven’t yet seen CoreLogic’s Fusion product (also developed in Flash) but I have to imagine an MLS system integrated with RealList data would be a hit. CoreLogic does have some hurdles, Tempo, doesn’t work on any browser except Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. And now Fusion won’t run on an iPad. Not anyone’s fault, who could have predicted the iPad’s popularity. But some MLS Vendors, like Solid Earth, appear to be heading to an “iPad first” strategy.

One argument I hear a lot from these MLS Vendors is that according to their analytics less than 2% of MLS subscribers are using iPad to access their current MLS systems. This is just whistling through the graveyard in my opinion.

The Octagon

The issues I talk about above really make for some interesting thoughts about the competitive landscape of MLS Vendors. I see a few scenarios.

Innovation. MLS Vendors who have MLS systems that run on multiple devices, won’t have to develop or mange multiple code bases. These MLS Vendors are free to leverage their develop resources towards other innovations instead of solving cross compatibility issues. A huge advantage as I see it.

Less choice. With the recent acquisition of Tarasoft by CoreLogic lowered the choices in MLS systems vendors. And with CoreLogic still dominating the public records side (has anyone really canceled their RealList contract as RPR has suggested?) are they getting “to big to fail”? Put in another way, do MLS Providers want to have a single vendor control so much of their mission critical applications and data?

It seems the value proposition for other smaller (alternative?) MLS Vendors are starting to get more attractive.

1. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
2. More innovation
3. More personal service.

Sounds good to me.

New Business Models

The reality is that its hard being a pimp. MLS system sales have always had a long sales cycle and with the down real estate market not many large/medium MLS Providers are in a hurry to go thru a conversion. So some MLS vendors are opting to start new business models. FBS comes to mind. MLS Providers are also branching out. Metrolist’s Marketplace comes to mind.

Focus is also becoming a big factor. I noticed this in two areas recently.

1. LPS sold their broker and agents division (now R.E.D. Real Estate Digital)
2. CoreLogic recently sold their Membership Director product back to MMSI.

Welcome to the 3rd Party

I also see a big boon for 3rd Party Software developers in the future (hooray!) Managed and standardized databases and APIs are all in the near future. The aforementioned Marketplace is a perfect example of a new distribution model for real estate specific web apps to be sold. If MLS Providers and Vendors can successfully change the behavior of MLS members to look to buy these apps through a portal, and that portal is easily accessible through their MLS system, 3rd Party software companies stand to benefit immensely. Talk about “non-dues revenue”!

You are witnessing the rebirth of MLS Vendors

I see in 2012 MLS Vendors hammering out their strategy for the next NAR annual meeting Orlando. At that conference I think we are going to see a lot of new innovative stuff, not just from the product side but the re-invention of what it means to be an MLS Vendor going forward. I’m excited about the possibilities.

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