Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

eShowings CEO, Charles Smith, goes to prison.

This guy should make the “most stupid criminals list”. Not paying payroll taxes? Really? That’s was you plan?

EShowings founder headed to prison after pocketing company funds

Andrea V. Brambila of Inman News

“Charles Smith, 54, of Bear, Del., founded his 180-employee firm, eShowings Inc., in 1999. In April, Smith pleaded guilty to 10 counts of “failure to truthfully account for and pay over payroll taxes” during a nearly three-year period between 2007 and 2009. On Oct. 4, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced Smith to 30 months in prison.”

The real travesty is the 180 people who put their trust in this guy.

And then there’s this.

“BHHS Fox & Roach has already chosen another appointment center from showing management tech company ShowingTime for its 62 offices and 4,000 agents.”

A wins a win.

Glenn Kelman’s post gives insight to latest financing round.

In my opinion Redfin is the only true disruptor in the industry.

Slideshow? This time, it was different: Redfin’s $50 million financing all about customer value

Glenn Kelman:

“But software entrepreneurs have mostly gone only halfway. We have sometimes been like the medieval monks who were once so committed to the celestial sphere that they had to confess to any acts of manual labor.

The result of this cloistering has been breathtaking virtual worlds. But from the perspective of a new generation of entrepreneurs who are using our software expertise to build, say, electric cars, these worlds can sometimes seem like a high school science fair project, with a limited impact on the real world. Just look at what is happening now that the people who make 1′s and 0′s are also trying their hand at physical goods and services:

-Uber is an iPhone app for ordering a ride, but it’s worth 100 times more than Taxi Magic because it has built its own transportation system.

Spot on.

TREND selects CoreLogic’s Matrix as primary MLS platform in multiyear deal.

Brian de Schepper
Brian de Schepper
Early this year CoreLogic promoted Brian de Schepper to head all of MLS sales for CoreLogic. Brian as many of you know was part of the Tarasoft team that CoreLogic bought a few years back. I spoke to Ben Graboske, VP of CoreLogic, at a recent event and he told me that he has full confidence in Brian. Looks like the confidence is justified in regards to this recent deal with TREND MLS.

25,000 members (per month) is a huge win. Switching from TREND MLS’ home grown system was a big decision. As everyone knows Tom Phillips and his team at TREND MLS are a careful bunch and I can imagine the process that Corelogic went through to get this business was, to say the least, involved. Congrats to Brian and CoreLogic.

Here’s the full press release.

Memphis chooses Paragon

MAAR has about 3,000 members. Nice win for LPS. Congrats!

Full Press Release Below:
______________________________________

Memphis Area Association of REALTORS® Selects LPS’ Paragon®
for Its New MLS System
Memphis Area Association Serves More Than 3,000 Real Estate Professionals

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Oct. 1, 2013 — Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS), a leading provider of integrated technology, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries, announced today that the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS® (MAAR) has selected LPS’ Paragon® as its next-generation MLS system. Serving more than 200 MLSs and more than 190,000 real estate professionals, Paragon MLS is a dynamic system platform that makes it easy for real estate professionals to manage their businesses and collaborate with clients.

Thank you, and if you have any questions, please contact Michelle Kersch or me.

Laura B. McGee
Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager
LPS
601 Riverside Ave., T-4
Jacksonville, FL 32204
Ph 904.854.5133
Fax 904.854.4124
laura.mcgee@lpsvcs.com

LPS inks deal with Sandicor.

Well it looks like the rumors were true. LPS and Sandicor made it official on Friday and inked a 4 year deal for their Paragon MLS system.

This is a huge win for LPS and a validation for their Paragon MLS system with large MLS providers. I’m also hearing some interesting things about the selection process I’m hoping to share in a later post.

Congrats to Rich Lull and his team!

CoreLogic buys DataQuick

SumoCoreLogic set to beef up data capabilities with $661M acquisition.

Via Inman News:

“Marking what is probably the biggest deal in the real estate tech space so far this year, data aggregator CoreLogic announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase a pair of technology companies for a whopping $661 million, a move that will strengthen its footprint in the insurance industry and beef up its property data and analytics capabilities”

This is a HUGE deal. CoreLogic is prepping itself for a battle. When I read this I kept thinking about Bill Foley’s recent acquisition of LPS. Like two Sumo wrestlers preparing to enter the ring.

Move, Inc. renews contract with Microsoft.

Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow
Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow

Nice win for Move, Inc.

Was anyone else surprised that Microsoft sold the name HomeAdvisor to ServiceMagic? I guess I missed/forgot the news last year.

Also I looooooove this little tidbit from Move, Inc.’s press release….

““We know that Microsoft had a number of choices in online realtor partners and are pleased to announce our continued long-standing relationship with MSN to deliver the most accurate and trusted real estate information to the MSN community,” said Barbara O’Connor, executive vice president of marketing for Move, Inc.”

In a nutshell, what Barb is saying, is Move, Inc. won the business from Zillow.

And there’s nothing sweeter than kicking your competitors ass on their home turf (Seattle).

Congrats to everyone at Move, Inc.

Clareity partners with CoreLogic on MLS App store

From Inman News: Clareity, CoreLogic to open MLS app store

“Offering competitive and meaningful core services plus introducing a store offers MLS organizations a bridge to the future of the MLS delivery of service,’ said Gregg Larson, Clareity’s president and CEO, in a blog post.

‘This goes way beyond offering a standalone app store. This is about creating a super personalized and convenient way for products to be ‘one-click’ ordered and provisioned to MLS subscribers while creating a seamless experience for members to access all of their products and services.”

Big news on the heels of my earlier post this week.

Whether you believe a stand alone MLS App Store is a good idea or not, this is a huge deal for Clareity. Congrats!

Nudge signs up MRIS and Leading RE broker network

From 100watt blog: Nudge partners with Leading RE and MRIS.

“First, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a network of more than 500 real estate companies that spans the globe, has made Nudge an official Solutions Group Partner. Under this arrangement, all brokerage companies and agents within the network will receive an exclusive price and other benefits.

Second, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS), one of the nation’s largest MLS organizations, has purchased a large volume of Nudge licenses for its members. Through our partnership with MRIS, agents and brokers will also receive special training on using Nudge within a broader marketing strategy.”

If you are interested in how Nudge can help you MLS just email me and I’ll set you up a free demo account to try it out.

LPS powers consolidation of 13 Indiana MLS providers.

LPS Technology Selected to Power Consolidation of 13 Multiple Listing Services Into A Single Indiana Regional MLS
LPS Paragon Will Serve New 5,000-member MLS

“For the first time, more than 5,000 real estate professionals across Indiana – who formerly used 13 independent MLS systems – will now have unrestricted access to more than 750,000 real estate listings through LPS Paragon’s advanced capabilities. Newly formed Indiana Regional MLS (IRMLS) will collect from and distribute listing data to the 13 Realtor associations in Indiana, allowing members to search across multiple markets and pay only one MLS fee to access the IRMLS data.”

These deals are complicated (technology and politics) so a nice win for LPS.

And there’s this…

“Kendall said the participating associations worked collaboratively with industry consultant Kevin McQueen of Focus Forward Consulting Inc. and LPS to meet the challenge of a consolidation of this magnitude and achieve successful results. “In addition to combining the listing data information, the resulting cost efficiencies are going to provide members additional benefits, including public records information, appointment services and a consumer-facing website,” she said.”

Mark one on the score board as well for Kevin McQueen of Focus Forward Consulting.

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