In a press release yesterday, Indiana Regional MLS announced the selection of LPS as the vendor for consolidating 13 MLS systems into one. The effort was led by Kevin McQueen of Focus Forward Consulting. McQueen successfully managed to get 13 different MLSs serving an aggregate of 5000 subscribers to combine their MLS. The subscribers should be very excited about this. It is likely to reduce their costs and improve their services. There will be some bumps along the way as they accomodate change – but this is a great opportunity to advance the industry. Well done by all!
There is a cool website that will allow those who may be considering similar initiatives to review the process which was expertly guided by McQueen. Click Here – http://indianaregional.org/ There is a handy Talking Points Document that tells the story of how it will work here: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Findianaregional.files.wordpress.com%2F2012%2F12%2Firmls-updated-oct-2012-talking-points.pdf
PRESS RELEASE
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Feb. 21, 2013 – Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS), a leading provider of integrated technology, services, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries, today announced an agreement by which LPS Paragon technology will be used to consolidate the property listing data of 13 Indiana Realtor® organizations across 42 counties into a single MLS system for real estate professionals and their customers. 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. “The ability to access a massive amount of aggregated listing data is going to help Realtors and their clients by allowing them to work more efficiently in the marketplace,” said Carrie Kendall, general manager of the new IRMLS and executive officer of the Lafayette Regional Association of Realtors® in Lafayette, Ind. “And, IRMLS now has the critical mass necessary to provide more services to our members and to their members’ clients for years to come.” 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. “Paragon is setting a new standard in performance to help Realtor members grow their businesses,” said Marty Reed, vice president of business operations for LPS’ MLS Division. “Now, real estate professionals in many areas of Indiana will have access to all the listing data they need without the effort and added cost of belonging to multiple MLS organizations.”
“The agreement addresses an important need in the real estate industry”, said McQueen. “When associations work together and deliver a more efficient multiple listing service, the members and their consumers all benefit,” he said. “This was not an easy project. I salute the associations for their focus on the future, their concerns for their members, and their willingness to work toward a common goal. We thank LPS for their investment in this exciting endeavor.” McQueen said the Indiana consolidation is larger than other previous efforts and he encouraged other MLSs to explore similar arrangements in their markets. “We should continue to work toward making the MLS infrastructure essential for tomorrow’s real estate world.”
About Lender Processing Services Lender Processing Services (NYSE: LPS) delivers comprehensive technology solutions and services, as well as powerful data and analytics, to the nation’s top mortgage lenders, servicers and investors. As a proven and trusted partner with deep client relationships, LPS offers the only end-to-end suite of solutions that provides major U.S. banks and many federal government agencies the technology and data needed to support mortgage lending and servicing operations, meet unique regulatory and compliance requirements and mitigate risk. These integrated solutions support origination, servicing, portfolio retention and default servicing. LPS’ servicing solutions include MSP, the industry’s leading loan-servicing platform, which is used to service approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar volume. The company also provides proprietary data and analytics for the mortgage, real estate and capital markets industries. LPS is headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., and employs approximately 8,000 professionals. The company is ranked on the Fortune 1000 as the 877th largest American company in 2012. For more information, please visit www.lpsvcs.com.
About Indiana Regional MLS Indiana Regional MLS is a limited liability corporation that provides property listing data aggregated from 13 Indiana Realtor® associations to its members through an agreement that makes it easier for the professionals to do their job and deliver value to the consumers whom they serve. The 13 founding associations are: Lafayette Regional Association of Realtors®; Elkhart County Board of Realtors®; Upstate Alliance of Realtors® (UPSTAR); Kosciusko Board of Realtors®; Mid-Eastern Indiana Association of Realtors®; NorthEastern Indiana Association of Realtors®; Evansville Area Association of Realtors®; Bloomington Board of Realtors®; Greater South Bend – Mishawaka Association of Realtors®; North Central Indiana Association of Realtors®; Realtors® Association of Central Indiana; Bedford Board of Realtors®; and White County Association of Realtors® Inc. The IRMLS database includes on-market and off-market listings in the following Indiana counties: Adams, Allen, Benton, Blackford, Cass, Daviess, DeKalb, Delaware, Dubois, Elkhart, Fountain, Fulton, Gibson, Grant, Henry, Howard, Huntington, Jay, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Lawrence, Marshall, Martin, Miami, Monroe, Noble, Owen, Perry, Pike, Posey, St. Joseph, Spencer, Steuben, Tippecanoe, Tripton, Wabash, Warren, Warrick, Wells, White, Whitley and Vanderburgh.
That’s pretty exciting stuff. Great news for the Realtors in that area who will have better data and better services as well