With the offer of compensation moving into the rear view mirror as a result of the antitrust settlement regarding buyer agency, MLSs continue to focus on delivering services that matter most to their participants and subscribers. Chief among them is wider MLS access to support referrals.
IntraMatrix is a reciprocal link program that allows an agent to access another Matrix system though an SSO link. The idea is to allow real estate professionals to perform research for their client and produce successful referrals. WAV Group has been studying this foundational data sharing type for a long time. One of the earliest reciprocal link sharing programs was in the San Francisco Bay Area – with San Francisco, BAREIS, BridgeMLS, MetoList, and MLS Listings allowing subscribers to hop between systems.
In March of last year, NorthstarMLS linked up with Northwestern Wisconsin MLS. Brenda Barnhardt, Executive Vice President of Northwestern Wisconsin MLS said, “This collaboration allows participants and subscribers from both MLSs to view the other organizations’ Matrix listing management platform.”
Last month, BeachesMLS – the market area north of Miami Regional and south of Jacksonville Regional – announced the launch of IntraMatrix with California Regional. These markets are actually a continent apart, but California represents the second largest migration to Florida. Californian’s recognize the coast of Florida as a great place to live with a much lower cost of living and more affordable housing. Beaches MLS has also linked up through IntraMatrix with Omni MLS – Latin America’s largest MLS. Again, the focus is on referrals.
Why wouldn’t an MLS link up?
The top reason why MLSs would not link up is because of MLS competition. Bordering MLSs often challenge each other for subscribers.
Another reason is to protect territory. Many MLSs do not collaborate with their neighbors because their members do not want “those agents” coming into town when they do not know the area.
At times, linking is irrelevant. If there is not a reasonable number of consumers migrating between two areas, the referral volume is likely too low to link up.
This trend will continue
Another migration of sorts happened at the end of June. MLS executives and staff collaborated at the CoreLogic Client Summit meeting in Denver, Colorado. Alongside CMLS and the Clareity Conference, this is the most well attended gathering of MLSs in America. It was surely a great event among industry peers and Matrix Users. But most of all, I witnessed there to be a lot of discussion about linking up using IntraMatrix. The theme of the event is telling – Collaboration Rocks!
If you are interested in reviewing posts from the summit to see the highlights of the agenda – you can follow Kevin Hawkins – my favorite social media poster at any conference. I posted as well. Follow me, Victor Lund, on X.
If you attended, what did you think? Share your comments below.
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