The 7 Keys to A Successful MLS Conversion

If my history recollection serves me, Vancouver is where Canada’s first real estate board was formed in 1888. The current Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) has been in continuous operation since 1919. They are also members of a leading regional MLS that encompasses the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board as a partner and the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board and the British Columbia Northern Real Estate Board as customers. Together they transitioned 16,000 Realtors to Black Knight’s Paragon system. Many industry insiders are touting it as the smoothest conversion in history. WAV Group connected with Eileen Day, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:25-07:00January 12th, 2016|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on The 7 Keys to A Successful MLS Conversion

MRIS and Trend Take Next Step Down The Aisle

Courageous, Unselfish,  Forward Thinking, Thoughtful – those are the adjectives that Association shareholders, brokers and agents are using to describe the merger of Metropolitan Regional MLS and Trend MLS. In an announcement today, the firms announced that they are now offering a combined data feed. This means that any technology service provider can get one data feed from both markets, reducing the costs associated with managing multiple feeds and normalizing data. Unified Feed is Designed for Participant Brokers Rockville, MD and King of Prussia, PA – Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. (“MRIS”) and The Delaware Valley Real Estate Information Network, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:26-07:00January 12th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off on MRIS and Trend Take Next Step Down The Aisle

Top 10 Ways to Become a Truly Broker-Centric MLS.

Ever since the now infamous Gripe List was published, MLSs have been scrambling to find out they can better serve their MLS Customers.  I was honored to moderate a panel of brokers at the highly successful RESO conference last week as part of the first business track. I asked them what they believe an MLS must do to become broker-centric. Since there is no official definition of what a broker-centric MLS is I thought I would take a crack at it to get the conversation going. The following list is a compilation of their answers along with interviews we conducted [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:29-07:00November 11th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

CoreLogic and Instanet Get Married

WAV Group will be publishing a case study later today about how Hunt Real Estate leveraged Instanet, and MLS solution to deliver more value across their brokerage. There is a lot of alignment between the broker customers and MLS customers of both firms.   November 06, 2015, Irvine, Calif. - CoreLogic® (NYSE: CLGX), a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider, today announced that it has signed an agreement to become the exclusive provider of Instanet Solutions® to clients of its market-leading real estate platforms, including Matrix™, Realist® and AgentAchieve®. CoreLogic real estate solutions are used by more than 900,000 real [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:29-07:00November 6th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights|Comments Off on CoreLogic and Instanet Get Married

America’s Largest MLS Offering System of Choice

One announcement that was made around the Council of MLS meetings was the intention of the California Regional Association of REALTORS to offer the Paragon MLS system alongside the CoreLogic Matrix system. This was a big topic of conversation in our recent webinar, the most recent installment in our ongoing WAVes of Change series. Just think about it – they will be running in parallel forever. History CRMLS is a complex MLS. They support 78,000 subscribers and they plan to grow. California has a lot of Paragon installations in California, including some large MLSs like San Diego County and a [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:31-07:00November 4th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|Comments Off on America’s Largest MLS Offering System of Choice

CoreLogic Extends Trestle RETS Server to other Systems for FREE

It is RESO week. The week when CIO and CTO types gather together in Austin, TX for the Annual Real Estate Standards Organization meeting. This year’s conference was sold out for the first time with a rumored count of more than 700 participants. Kevin Hawkins of WAV Group Communications says that the environment and buzz at the conference is amazing. You can follow Kevin's RESO updates on Twitter @RESO_RETS  or follow the RESO hashtag at #reso15 to listen to the conference chatter. One of the astonishing calls that I got today was from an MLS asking me if CoreLogic was [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:31-07:00October 28th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on CoreLogic Extends Trestle RETS Server to other Systems for FREE

Understanding the MRIS-TREND Project

The highlight topic for the CMLS conference last week was the overview provided by Tom Phillips, President and CEO of TREND; Gene Millman, TREND Board Chair and David Charron, President and CEO of MRIS on their shared vision for bringing their two regional MLSs together. The keynote for me is that these organizations and their boards of directors started with a clean whiteboard. Nothing was held back from the development of the strategy, including dissolving both companies. The two organizations do not have the answers yet, but they are on the path to figuring it out. Why would they do [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:33-07:00October 14th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|3 Comments

Quarterbacking the adoption of the RESO Data Dictionary

An inside look with the Workgroup’s Chair, Rob Larson of CRMLS By Jeremy Crawford He’s at the helm of what has been hailed as real estate’s “Rosetta Stone.” Rob Larson, the Chief Information Officer of the nation’s largest Multiple Listing Service, CRMLS, chairs the RESO Data Dictionary Workgroup. The Workgroup is responsible for the real estate industry’s new and growing set of property data listing standards, which is quickly approaching the NAR mandated deadline of January 1, 2016 for Data Dictionary adoption. Larson and CRMLS are testaments to the old adage “Practice what you preach.” At CRMLS, Rob has lead [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:33-07:00October 8th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Quarterbacking the adoption of the RESO Data Dictionary

MLS As A Communication Tool

Years ago, real estate agents gathered for breakfast with wrinkled sheets of paper culled from notes that took at listing presentations. Of course, they were not listing presentations at the time. It was more like a walk around the place. Someone in the area, often a relative or a neighbor, was trusted for selling property. There were not a lot of transactions then. Many families homesteaded their land, like my great grandfather. Today the decedents of that family occupy that property, subdivided as necessary to provide homes for grown children. Real estate information is something that people knew long before [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:34-07:00October 6th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|4 Comments

A TRULY Broker-Centric MLS – What a Concept!

The now infamous GRIPE List issued by Craig Cheatham back in 2013 has led to a plethora of new ideas and initiatives. From the momentum of RESO Data Standards, to the Broker Public Portal and Upstream, the confrontation has led to more innovative ideas and initiatives than we’ve seen in many, many years. Last month MRIS and TREND announced a ground-breaking intention to find a way to partner with each other to create a brand new organization built with the fundamental goal to create a truly broker-centric MLS. According to David Charron, President and CEO of MRIS, “We are committed [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:34-07:00October 6th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on A TRULY Broker-Centric MLS – What a Concept!

How about MLS coverage defined by individual broker needs?

Last week MRIS and TREND announced a ground-breaking intention to find a way to partner with each other to create a brand new organization built with the fundamental goal to create a truly broker-centric MLS. If the taskforce formed that has been at work for over ten months can be successful, they will open up a huge market opportunity for brokers in the Mid-Atlantic region. Collectively, TREND and MRIS cover 31,000 square miles, 17 million consumers, 7 million on and off market properties, and 10 million property parcels. The group has drafted a Shared Commitment and Vision paper to help [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:34-07:00October 6th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on How about MLS coverage defined by individual broker needs?

Can You Predict Housing Trends Better than NAR?

The Council of Multiple Listing Services has long discussed the idea of being the source of homes sales data, but has never acted on this. So, ahead of the CMLS2015 conference, we're conducting an experiment to see how successful we might be if we gather that information direct from agents, brokers, and MLSs. How to Participate Many of you are already compiling this housing data. If you could copy us when you send your local data to NAR, that would be helpful. Alternatively, we've created a brief survey that asks about pricing, closings, and market conditions in your local area. [...]

By |2016-07-02T04:54:51-07:00September 30th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Can You Predict Housing Trends Better than NAR?