I just love it when technology truly helps make it easier for MLSs and brokers to deploy great technologies for consumers! Today, FBS and Solid Earth are announcing a really exciting partnership that will make it MUCH easier for MLSs to help their brokers generate tons of leads and listing of exposure without spending ANY additional dollars!
We talk a lot about data standards and their advantages, but sometimes it’s hard to understand the tangible value of APIs. Today FBS’ Spark API and Solid Earth’s Spring platform have changed all that. Because of their seamless integration, MLSs can now deploy a fully functional MLS consumer website quickly and easily with no fuss and no muss.
The Spark API makes it really easy to plug in LIVE MLS listing information into a highly attractive, fully functional engaging MLS consumer site. The Spring platform is fully compliant with Fair Display Guidelines, making these websites fully broker-friendly and really engaging for consumers looking for property. Many MLSs are challenged to find a website provider that truly understands the unique requirements of an MLS website and also has the depth of data expertise to deliver comprehensive, fresh and accurate MLS data consistently. This new partnership is a dream situation for many MLSs that have struggled with these issues.
Way to go, team! I just love it when technology truly solves problems and opens up opportunities for brokers and agents to sell more real estate!
Here’s the full press release:
FBS and Solid Earth Announce Partnership to Integrate Spark API with Spring
Fargo, North Dakota – June 20, 2017 – FBS, the creators of the industry-leading Flexmls System and Spark Platform, announced a partnership with Solid Earth to build their Spring Consumer Portal on the Spark API, an integration that will give Multiple Listing Services the ability to create and quickly deploy hyper local consumer portals in their marketplaces, delivering better quality leads to its members for the first time.
Just as FBS previously announced a partnership with AgentSquared Instant IDX websites powered by Spark, this new partnership with Solid Earth’s Spring is yet another demonstration of the growing popularity of Spark and FBS’s intention of working with technology innovators to offer the very best tools and resources to real estate professionals.
Michael Wurzer, CEO of FBS said, “Once complete, the Spring built on Spark integration brings the plug-and-play dream to life creating a better, more collaborative experience for both consumers and agents. Instead of the consumer house-hunting experience being separate and disconnected from the agent experience in the MLS, with this integration, we’ll join them together through the Spark API, all without duplicate entry or effort by the agent.”
Matt Fowler, Chief Executive Officer of Solid Earth, describes this partnership and subsequent integration work as “the most exciting change to the real estate space since IDX.” He elaborates upon the powerful reach of the benefits with a potential real life scenario: “Imagine a consumer searching an MLS-powered consumer portal with hyper-local content specific to their region — whether in the Midwest, mountains, or on the coast — and now the consumer wants to work with an agent. Instead of the agent having to duplicate that search and customer information to set up a subscription and listing alerts in the MLS system, that same consumer search and contact information is immediately available to the agent in the MLS system, all without duplicate entry. While this kind of automation is available in many industries already, until now, it has been elusive in real estate. With Spring on Spark, FBS and Solid Earth will bring automation to real estate.”
The first MLS set to launch Spring powered by Spark is the Staten Island MLS. Sandy Krueger, President/CEO of the 1,800 member MLS and CEO of the Staten Island Board of REALTORS®, which owns the MLS, said, “It’s exciting to be at the forefront of where MLS technology is heading. Most importantly, we are creating new value for our members and their clients through the Spring MLS solution in collaboration with the FBS Flexmls and its Spark API to fuel real time data to our site.”
Wurzer and Fowler both note that Spring can serve as both a consumer portal and an alternative MLS system for agents. “We’ve had discussion in our industry for several years about offering a ‘front end of choice,’ well, the future is now,” Wurzer said. Wurzer also notes that when purchasing Spring, MLSs and Brokers already licensing the Flexmls system can produce an entirely unique user experience and deploy a consumer facing website “without worrying about how to handle data feeds, as the Spark API does all the work for you.”
Fowler points out that many MLSs have struggled in creating consumer-facing portals because third-party website providers often do not know how to handle the deployment of comprehensive, real-time MLS information. With FBS and Solid Earth’s long-standing history in the MLS space, they confidently address the challenges while admirably demonstrating how once-competitors in the space can work harmoniously to create a better future for the industry as a whole. “The Spring platform delivers an attractive and engaging consumer site that follows the Fair Display guidelines while the Spark API gives you fully tested, reliable, and real-time MLS data to fuel the site. MLS customers get the benefit of decades of experience working intimately in and with the nuances of the MLS.”
Spring portal sites allow MLSs to provide members with an array of features including blog posts, RSS feeds and tweets, so that consumers see one set of property data, social and blog content, and members see another set. The consumer-facing website is designed to drive higher quality leads directly to MLS members instead of the big national portals. New Flexmls licensees (converting from other MLS software systems) can purchase Spring in the same contract, deploying Spring with Flexmls, once the integration work is complete.
About FBS, Creators of Flexmls
FBS is the leading innovator of MLS technology and one of the industry’s three largest MLS technology providers, with more than 200,000 real estate professional subscribers. Its Flexmls® system is built on the Spark standards-driven technology platform, and is the MLS industry’s first and most innovative Web API. Spark fuels real estate professionals’ businesses collaboration tools with a mobile-first approach that delivers timely and accurate real estate information. Uniquely, as an employee-owned (ESOP) company, FBS staff has earned one of the highest customer service performance measurements in any industry (NPS Score 84). Based in Fargo, North Dakota, discover more about FBS at www.flexmls.com.
About Solid Earth
Solid Earth has been in the real estate software business for more than 19 years and is located in Huntsville, Alabama. Publishers of the LIST-IT MLS system and the Spring Portal Platform, Solid Earth now serves more than 90,000 real estate professionals nationwide. Spring is an API-driven user interface to MLS information using innovative, patented technology. Significant markets include: Dallas, TX; San Diego, CA; Indianapolis, IN; Statewide Vermont and New Hampshire; Staten Island, NY; Birmingham, AL and about a dozen other US cities. Discover more at www.solidearth.com.
