Property Panorama and Trulia LogosProperty Panorama as appointed real estate industry veteran Mike Barnet as its new CEO, and Trulia releases information about the source of inaccurate data on their website today.

Property Panorama was not specific in outlining the reasons for changing their leadership, but a new captain is at the helm. Barnet joined the company as the CIO about a year ago, and has been working to lead the charge to take the popular virtual tour solution to a higher level. Property Panorama was a unique offering in the industry when it launched its MLS Data Powered automated virtual tour creation program. Today solutions like VirtualTour, RealBiz 360, Previsite and others provide similar functionality. The press release talks about customer service enhancements and the extension of the platform to incorporate customer relationship management features.

Trulia released research that indicates that data submitted to the website from non-MLS sources is 69% inaccurate. (Trulia correction: This is not accurate, we said that 69% of the errors we see come from 3rdparty syndicator source.) Although WAV Group has joined many others in the industry questioning why they even bother to accept those data feeds, Trulia would prefer to use their MLS Direct Reference product to correct the data rather than remove it. 1000WattConsulting was outspoken in their criticism of MLS Direct Reference:

Brian Boero writes:

  • This is mostly skilled messaging. Trulia is taking a “leadership” position in an area of weakness. I appreciate that dance, but with these things you need to look at the motive, not the message.
  • If you are an MLS and believe that your secret sauce is quality data, or perhaps have visions of a public-facing website, you’re essentially washing your competitor’s dirty car with your secret scrub-brush – for free.
Trulia Accuracy of Data by Source Statistic Comparison I am not sure that MLSs have the authority to participate in the Trulia Direct Reference program without the consent and approval of the brokers of the MLS. At a minimum, it would seem that brokers would need to be notified about the use of MLS data and be provided with an option to opt out. Some brokers are not fans of syndication at all, and agents sometimes use NON-MLS and NON-Broker syndication solutions without broker approval. Remember, its the broker’s data. Nevertheless, if you want to clean up the bad data, and Trulia refuses to simply kill the bad data feeds, Trulia Direct Reference should reduce the bad data problem significantly.
In all fairness to Trulia, Zillow and many other real estate third party websites follow the same practices of accepting data feeds from non-MLS feeds. I am certain that Realtor.com does not accept non-MLS feeds.
Property Panorama Press Release:

 Property Panorama® Announces an Election of its Board of Directors, Officers, and Directive – October 03, 2011 

Property Panorama® real estate‟s industry leader in virtual tours – serving over 65 multiple listing services and their Vendor/Partners – CoreLogic®, Rapattoni®, Paragon®, flexmls® – and their 325,000 broker/agent clientele are proud to announce its 2011 Board of Directors, Officers, and Directive. 

Newly Elected President and CEO, Mike Barnett… 

is a fourth generation REALTOR®, technologist, future thinker, and pioneer in the real estate industry. Before taking his election, Mike was the CTO of InternetCrusade® and was instrumental in the creation and release (1996) of real estate „first community‟ RealTown®, list servers like RealTalk®, AEtalk®, and MLStalk®. He co-created ePRO®, an online technology certification program for NAR, their fastest growing certification program ever. 

Excelled as CIO 

“Mike has lead as our CIO”, explains Vince Farrar, Angle Investor, major shareholder and Chairman of the Board. “His experience, wisdom, talents, and direction have propelled us forward by leaps and bounds. He further assisted us in examining and redefining our Vision and Mission. We look forward to Mike presenting these to the industry and beyond as President and CEO of our company.” 

Unveiled Consumercentric Ideals for Customer Service 

Continuing, Mr. Farrar states, “We have focused our sights on excellence in quality service and delivery by bringing together an accomplished staff trained in the trenches with our client base, installing an innovative CRM, which ties to a new state-of-the-art mobile phone system, and much more.” 

Very Exciting Times 

“I take great pride in being part of such a high paced growth,” says, Scott Bliss, REALTOR and major shareholder with 20 plus years of software development and sales and an actively contributing Board member. “Mike 

adds a terrific combination of industry relationships and management experience. From day one, it was apparent that he could engage in every aspect and level of our business proving to be an extraordinary asset. With Mike at the helm, there is no doubt Property Panorama® will exceed the high standards our customers demand as well as excel into future products and services to further solidify our pairing with the real estate industry.” 

Board directives already set in action: 

Advanced communication system – Labor reducing accounting and billing system – Online Chat, launched from any page on our site – Tour Manager reduced to four steps – Quarterly Newsletter – „Tour of the Month‟ contest! 

Board Celebrates New Direction 

“Once centered on marketing, Property Panorama® is now entirely Customercentric in Strategy, Goals, and Direction,” Mike states with certainty. “Flagship products like our Elite Suite Virtual Tour®, including PodCAST Tour, MobilMedia™ with Tour TurboText™, and Video Tour (auto posted to YouTube®), have catapulted us to the number one provider of virtual tours in the real estate industry. Our highly acclaimed „Insta‟ line, InstaView, InstaViewPro, and InstaPrint, with their ease of use and price „per customer‟, verses the old price „per listing‟ model, has brought the virtual tour industry to attention! Not to mention that, unlike our competition, Property Panorama® products are „server-side‟ meaning no software needed.” 

Market Buzz 

Mike‟s energy quickens, “The market BUZZ regarding our new products and services has been amazing, driving inquiries from new clients to a pace unseen before now. Within the next 30 days, InstaView will roll out in Miami and SANDICOR (San Diego)! Coming soon, another new line of Customercentric products! Stay tuned.” 

Mike Barnett, President, CEO can be reached at Mike@PropertyPanorama.com