Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

CMLS elects new board members

Chris Haran
Justin Haag

COUNCIL OF MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICES ELECTS NEW DIRECTORS FOR 2024

“The Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS), the professional trade organization serving the Multiple Listing Services industry and representing 231 member organizations with 1.8 million subscribers, has elected new directors for 2024. They will assume their roles on January 1, 2024.

Justin Haag, General Counsel and incoming President and CEO (Jan. 1, 2024) of Northwest MLS (Washington); and Chris Haran, Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer of MRED (Illinois), were elected to serve three-year terms on the CMLS Board of Directors. Matthew Consalvo, CEO of ARMLS (Arizona) was re-elected for a second three-year term.”

Megan Moore, CMLS

Congrats to Justin, Chris and Matt. They certainly have signed up for some interesting time in the MLS industry!

Anyone else seeing these?

Just as predicted these copycat lawsuits are gonna be everywhere. 😖

VESTAPLUS hires Kelly Robinson

VESTAPLUSTM MLS Software Solutions Appoints Industry Veteran Kelly Robinson as Vice President of Sales & Marketing

“VESTAPLUSTM MLS Software Solutions, a leading provider of innovative real estate technology, is proud to announce the appointment of Kelly (Pantis) Robinson as the Vice President of Sales & Marketing. With over 30 years of experience in the real estate industry, Kelly Robinson is set to lead the company’s growth initiatives and expand its comprehensive suite of MLS software solutions, which includes the highly acclaimed VESTAPLUS PROTM mobile app, Checkmate Listing Violation DetectionTM, Neighborhood SnapshotTM, ShowingsPlusTM, and TechAssistLineTM.

VESTAPLUS, Press Release

Sheeeees back! This industry is certainly Hotel California. Many may not remember but Kelly (back then it was Kelly Pantis) co-founded RealtyPlus Online, one of the first web-based MLS systems. Great hire by Annie and looking forward to seeing Kelly making an impact on the industry again.

VestaPlus

My thanks again to VestaPlus for sponsoring this month’s Vendor Alley. The team at VestaPlus has put together a great website that highlights the benefits of VestaPlus. The website is also a good resource to learn about the other products/features offered by VestaPlus such as Neighborhood Snapshot(tm), ShowingsPlus(tm), and Checkmate(tm) (which was recently adopted by CWMLS).

6%? Hold My Beer

In this first week of the Sitzer Burnett trial is all about the plaintiff presenting their case. And it seems that the plaintiffs are all about showing training materials, and slides from previous conferences that use the 6% as proof that the “fix is in”!

The poor consumer has been tricked in to thinking that this percentage was never negotiable. Hell, the whole reason for scripts in the first place was that CONSUMERS WERE ALWAYS TRYING TO NEGOTIATE. Has anyone brought that point up?

Also, this….

Inman News’ Andrea Brambila is “live on the scene” for the Sitzer | Burnett case

I don’t think they allow phones or recording devices in the courtroom for the Sitzer | Burnett lawsuit but Inman News has sent Andrea to cover the courtroom case and they have posted a website, for “live updates”. I don’t think anyone has as much understanding of the issues more than Andrea so I’m glad they sent her!

You can check the Live Updates site here.

Wall Street Clueless

A few choice quotes from this weekend’s WSJ article on “Realtors Face an Antitrust Reckoning”

“The Realtors require this offer if a seller wants the home listed on an affiliated multiple-listing service, which is a database of homes for sale that serves the same purpose as a stock exchange. While innovation and competition have slashed stockbroker commissions, the commission on home sales has stayed basically flat for decades at 6%, split evenly between the buyer and seller agents.”

The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal

Buying a home is not like buying an airline ticket, movie ticket, toilet paper or a stock. It’s a decision that doesn’t happen often, emotional and can be the largest financial decision in their lives. For those reasons it makes sense for someone to hire a trusted advisor.

“The Realtors also claim their rules benefit consumers by giving them “access to the largest database of properties available” and reducing out-of-pocket costs. But commissions get baked into home prices. If not for the Realtors’ rule, many buyers wouldn’t use brokers or would negotiate lower commissions. Home prices would likely fall.”

The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal

“Many buyers wouldn’t use brokers”? See above comment.

I could go on and on, but WTAF?

Did Cincy MLS just axe Perchwell in favor of going back Rapattoni MLS?

Looks like last week the frustration of some Cincy MLS members hit the evening news (see video below).

1,000 Realtor-members signed a petition to return to Rapattoni services as a primary listing service among complaints aimed at Perchwell listing services

“In a statement, MLS of Greater Cincinnati President Anne Uchtman said they could never have anticipated a cyber attack leaving the region without any listing services.

“The Multiple Listing Service of Greater Cincinnati and its board of directors are committed to finding a solution that allows our users to do their job to the best of their ability and continue serving our consumers,” she said. “Our two MLS providers, Rapattoni and Perchwell, have been extremely helpful and supportive during this crisis. We are working non-stop to get this issue resolved and hope to have a solution in the coming days.”

Sean DeLancey of WCPO

Not a good situation for anyone. I haven’t had full confirmation but it appears that the members voted and want Rapattoni back. I’m not sure what this means for Perchwell, whether is will run in parallel or not. If anyone can confirm please say something in the comments.

Space Coast Adds Relevate’s SSO and Communication Center

Space Coast Association of REALTORS® launches Relevate SSO and Communication Center

“Ensuring an organization’s entire value proposition is front-and-center with every member log in, Relevate’s SSO Dashboard highlights all the tools provided by the association or MLS along with key benefits such as education, events, affinity programs, governance, and more. It is a powerful companion to Relevate AMS and Relevate for MLS that handles identity management, collects actionable usage data to guide management decisions, and sends targeted communications to drive user engagement.”

Mike Price at Relevate

The AMS, SSO, member communication space is going to heat up fast. I’m hearing about multiple solutions out there. This is going to drive innovation and be great for MLS organizations and their members.

Bill Hurley presents 2,851 Miles

Do yourself a favor an watch this presentation given at the ALL-IN Summit by noted Venture Capitalist Bill Gurley. It only about 35 mins and worth the watch.

What lesson can we learn in our industry from the phrase, “regulation is the friend of the incumbent”?

Sponsored By MLS Reset