The San Francisco Association of REALTORS (SFAR) is working on a new MLS front end system, dubbed RealTime MLS, to help combat pocket listings and increase agent to agent communication.
A video has been making the rounds featuring SFAR’s MLS Director, Jay Pepper-Martens, giving a presentation about the new front end system. The system focuses on active listings, has a Facebook feel, and hopes to offer an MLS alternative to “listing clubs” that have been up and running in the Bay Area. 11% of listing in SFAR are sold “Off MLS”.
I talked a bit with SFAR’s CEO Walt Baczkowski and he told me that while many MLS systems offer ways to mark listings as “coming soon” they really don’t facilitate agent to agent conversations which are key to pre-marketing. So he wants to give agents a legit way of pre market listings.
What I like about this approach is that Walt and his team aren’t trying to solve everything. They are focusing on a problem and trying to solve it. Which I think is a great approach, and something they can build on later.
You can view the video here.
BTW, I love the format of the video. It’s broken up in 3 parts. The presentation first. Then Jay answers questions from the audience given to him by a moderator and then end with a one of one conversation with an agent about the need for such a system.
