Listing Bits

Ask the average consumer what they know about the MLS, and you're likely to hear about their favorite Major League Soccer team. But CMLS wants to change that, and the organization is on a mission to educate the general public around the benefits of working with a real estate professional and listing a home on the MLS.   Katie Smithson is the Director of Enterprise Sales at Lone Wolf Technologies ,...

Prior to 2003, Supra had a monopoly on the lockbox market. But NAR membership wanted choice, so the trade association invested in its first outside tech company, SentriLock . Today, a similar market dominance exists in showing service solutions, and SentriLock is stepping in once again to compete with the dominant player in the space. Scott Fisher and Devin Beck are the CEO and Director of Revenue...

At present, MLS data access is unnecessarily complex. And brokers are calling for a more efficient system with a single set of rules around how the data can be used. In response, the CMLS Data Access Concepts Workgroup drafted the Listing Exchange and Access Policy or LEAP . But does the new policy really solve these problems? Could it be improved in a way that recognizes the changing landscape of...

Policy may not be sexy, but without standards around how we format real estate data and build technology systems, we simply can't share data or integrate the tools we need to do our jobs well. Sam DeBord serves as CEO of the Real Estate Standards Organization , the trade group responsible for developing the open standards that drive efficiency and streamline technology for the industry. His resume...

Video marketing is a powerful way for agents, brokers and real estate companies to reach consumers. But how do we get the most mileage out of our videos? How do we maximize the marketing value of the content we create?   Christian Sterner is the Cofounder and CEO of WellcomeMat , the premier platform for managing your real estate video. Christian's team facilitates successful video marketing campa...

What can technology vendors do to better connect with the agents and brokers we hope to serve? And what can we learn from the perspective of a computer engineer turned REALTOR about how to approach real estate professionals and what kind of tech solutions they need? Georgia Purpura is Managing Broker at Urban Nest Realty , a mid-size independent brokerage out of Las Vegas, Nevada, where she specia...

Owning a second home can be an enriching experience, allowing us to make priceless memories with friends and family. But many can't afford to buy a vacation home, nor does it make much sense to leave a house sitting empty for ten-plus months, even if you can afford it. So, what if you could buy a share of a second home and enjoy true ownership for a fraction of the cost and hassle?   ***MAKE SURE...

It's easier to gain a seller's trust when you have the data to back you up. But where can agents and brokers go for real-time buyer data? And how do we turn those numbers into actionable insights to earn new business? Ashley Terrell is the Executive Vice President of Partnerships at Buyside , a real estate tech platform that helps real estate professionals leverage intelligent buyer data to captur...

The five most stressful life events include the death of a loved one, divorce, major illness or injury, job loss, and moving. But a new proptech platform is working to take relocation off the list with a tool that makes the experience of moving less stressful, less expensive, and more efficient.   John Heithaus is a serial entrepreneur and venture investor with 30-plus years of experience in strat...

Who's ready to get geeky about MLS? Collaborations among MLS organizations are usually about sharing data. But MLS Aligned takes collaboration to another level, promoting dialogue among their in-house technology teams and putting the tech tools they have developed to work in each other's markets. Matt Consalvo is the CEO at Arizona Regional MLS, Chris Carrillo is the CEO of Wisconsin's Metro MLS,...

Most real estate agents look down on rentals, preferring to work solely with clients looking to buy in the next three to six months. What they don't realize is that there are $12B in leasing commissions available to those agents who are willing to work with renters. And they're missing out on the opportunity to build relationships with the homebuyers of tomorrow. But how do you find out what renta...

While we may not be able to predict exactly how the current health crisis will impact organized real estate moving forward, most of us would agree that change is in the air. The kind of change that could transform the way we do business altogether. So, how is the Coronavirus changing the way we think about the spaces where we live and work? And how might this new perspective lead to foundational s...

Out of 565 Multiple Listing Services nationwide, 82 serve less than 100 brokers and agents. Unsurprisingly, this means that the nation's 20 largest Multiple Listing Services serve over 50 percent of the nation's total MLS subscribers. These statistics didn't exist a year ago, but thanks to the Real Estate Almanac, the disparity is clear. Now that we understand the scale of the issue, how can we ma...

According to research conducted by Freddie Mac, there are 83 million mortgage-ready renters in the US! But most grossly overestimate how much they need for a down payment and very few know about the low down payment programs available to low and moderate-income home buyers. How much could a real estate business grow simply by making down payment assistance part of its business development strategy...

Many agents might view Opendoor as a competitor, yet another tech platform out to eliminate their jobs. But what if you could leverage the iBuyer as a partner to build your real estate business? Shannon Fitzpatrick leads a team of 45 agents at Movoto Real Estate in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, and Tyler Hixson serves as the Director of Real Estate Partnerships and Strategy at Opendoor . In thi...

When you move fast, you break things.  Mark and the rest of  Remine's co-founders are definitely shaking things up in the MLS space.  This conversation was recorded at the CMLS Conference in Salt Lake City on October 17 th before their  recent attempt to launch a new listing portal  and Zillow's decision to cut off access to their Zestimate API   As Mark says, in this wide ranging conversation, Re...

You can ask Alexa to turn on the lights, show you the forecast, remind you what's on your calendar today, or give you the score of the Astros game. And now, voice assistants are expanding to the real estate industry, allowing agents to open their business information and even access the MLS—with the sound of their voice alone!   Miguel and Ami Berger are the creators of Voiceter Pro , the conversa...

Michael Wurzer is 100% confident of one thing: The MLS creates value in the real estate market that doesn't exist in any other way. No one else has created enough trust to generate that same level of cooperation among competitors. And rather than being a scourge to brokers, Michael argues that the MLS powers the market. That unique value prop is the reason why he believes current trends will prove...

"These combinations are fragile. You're pulling 43 associations together. You're pulling all these different boards together. You're pulling all these different things together … so, I suppose you could look at blowing it up and go, 'Why the hell did you do that?' [The consolidation of MLSs] was a big deal and was very, very expensive. It really was, both in time and energy and everything involved...

Ever wonder what happened to all the business cards you've handed out over the years? Wish there was a better way to engage with prospects beyond simply giving them your contact information and hoping for the best? The SavvyCard platform affords real estate professionals the opportunity to provide immediate value to new leads, sharing information relevant to their initial conversation with the pro...

"We will never sacrifice service to our existing customers to growth. We just won't. Our first priority is taking care of our customers."   Merri Jo Cowen is the CEO of Stellar MLS , the third-largest regional MLS in the US with nearly 60K members in 16 REALTOR Associations throughout Central and Southwest Florida and Puerto Rico. Formerly known as My Florida Regional MLS, the organization's recen...

Rather than trying to predict the future of real estate and act accordingly, Gene Millman is working to collaborate with brokerages to create the future together. He comes to MLS leadership from a unique perspective, leveraging his experience running a brokerage to find ways to say YES to his members and champion the industry as a whole.   Gene is the CEO of Northern Nevada Regional MLS . With 32...

Glenn Kelman has always had the ambition to make real estate better for consumers. But it took him a while to realize that he wasn't the only one who wanted to do that. He came into the game with an US vs. THEM mentality, assuming that all of Redfin's competitors were villains and snake oil salesmen. To his relief, it turned out that his industry rivals were actually good people. And while that do...

"A phone call is worth a thousand emails, and a Slack channel is worth a million conversations."  RESO's push for an industry shift from RETS to Web API makes a lot of developers nervous. You can spin your wheels for days trying to figure out how to make the new way to consume MLS data work with your application. But here's the thing: Somebody else has probably already solved that problem. So, how...

In a world where national brands like Zillow and Realtor.com dominate search results, how can individual brokerage websites compete? And how do real estate brokerages stay relevant as the iBuyer market continues to grow? Eric Stegemann believes the firms that adapt and take on alternative options for transacting will be well-placed for the future—and adopting the right real estate tech is a big pa...