“SentriLock began when Scott Fisher, founder and CEO of SentriLock, with his partners, was working on improving the existing lockbox solution used by real estate agents. As the first working prototypes were being assembled, NAR made the decision to respond to member dissatisfaction of having only one lockbox solution and purchased majority interest in SentriLock. SentriLock and its new lockbox made its debut at the NAR Leadership Summit in August 2003 and, with its return to the Summit this year, SentriLock celebrates 20 years as the NAR’s official lockbox solution allowing REALTORS® to “Unlock their potential”.
Scott’s contribution to the industry goes even farther back to PC Access, which was an earlier competitor of mine (Lightning -Easy MLS Access) in the pre-internet days. Many years later Scott and I had a chance to sit down at lunch and talk about the old days of VT-100n, Moore Data, PRC, and BORIS. Congrats.
“The opportunity to be the president and CEO of NWMLS is the highlight of my professional career,” Hurdelbrink said. “We have seen quite a lot of industry changes in the past 15 years, and the organization has come through it all stronger and even more committed to be a leading resource for our members. It has been my honor to work with outstanding staff, board members and member firms to elevate the profession and ultimately better serve consumers.”
-NWMLS
An amazing 15 years at the helm. NWMLS has been ahead of many of the changes going on in the industry and that’s no coincidence. Tom has never been one to grab the spotlight but always working on behalf of his members and the industry at large. His humble leadership will be missed. Congrats Tom, and happy trails.
“San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR) is seeking a highly motivated and forward-thinking individual to take on the role of MLS Director. As the MLS Director, you will be a key leader, providing direct oversight of the MLS department and fostering a culture of teamwork and collaboration within the team.”
“Bright, which serves a major portion of the Northeast, announced on its website that starting Aug. 9 it will allow users to put in a blanket offer for buyer brokers — including an offer of zero dollars. Previously, the lowest allowed amount was one cent, so it is a very small change in terms of dollars and cents, but a significant one in terms of transparency, Bright contends.
“We are making this small change to underscore the complete flexibility of Bright subscribers to engage in transparent negotiations with their clients,” Bright noted in the announcement.”
“Megan McFarlane, Executive Director of NMMLS, said, “The product is exciting. What MLSs can build when they work together is not just strong because of the relationships, but strong because Aligned Showings is cutting-edge technology.”
New Mexico members will benefit from Aligned Showings’ mobile app, optimized route mapping, real-time messaging, advanced showing approval system and other features”
Looks like MLS Aligned is offering their products beyond their partners. I hope they don’t start making CMA software!
I was talking with an MLS Exec the other day, he told me that they had to call the police because a member was upset at a recent change they made to their MLS system and made threats about what he was going to do when he came to the MLS office. In this day and age with what happens in schools I don’t blame them for calling the police.
I heard another story about an MLS/Assn how a member organized a “march on the association offices”, in this case, the MLS was accused of making too many changes in a short time. Yikes! They even started a Facebook group. Imagine that, a Facebook group, I wonder what name they gave the Facebook group? “Hands off our MLS system!”, “Back to the MLS Books!”, or maybe “You’re doing too much, STOP!”
Of course, you have to plan. These changes have to be thoughtful. But no matter what members will complain that “we didn’t have enough time”, “we weren’t notified”, “it’s not the right time of year” or “we wanted more training”. That is always going to happen, no matter if it’s 3 months or 3 years. To me, those are table stakes that any organization has to deal with when they move forward.
Along with all the drama on social media, MLS staff, and execs are berated with emails, phone calls, and name-calling. You really can’t blame any MLS exec who doesn’t do much and keeps the status quo. I mean it is the safe thing to do if you want to keep your job.
But there are others that press forward, who know the risks, but know the rewards as well, and press on. Because if we aren’t growing, we are dying. You don’t want to “change for change’s sake” but we have to try new things if we want to progress. We all need to fight to move our organizations and the industry forward.
That’s leadership.
So when presented with a new idea you want implemented, or a decision you need to make that should have been made long ago, don’t be discouraged. Remember what the Spartans said when the Persians told them if they fought they would unleash enough arrows that would “black out the sun.”
“Good,” the Spartans said, “then we will fight in the shade.”
“UtahRealEstate.com announced today that it has launched a new statistics product, RapidStats, to its nearly 20,000 members. RapidStats is an advanced statistics product provided by Markt, a professional services company that brings leading back- office solutions to multiple listing services. With RapidStats, real estate professionals in Utah will now have access to a variety of new statistical reports, the ability to select and draw custom market areas for reporting, and access to a powerful customer relationship tool that enables statistics to be sent to clients on a scheduled timeline”
This is in partnership with Markt. But what is Markt? At the last Clareity/CL Conference, Nicole Jensen quipped that Markt wasn’tMLS Aligned. Which got a laugh. Markt as “a professional services company that brings leading back-office solutions to multiple listing services” fits better.
And it seems nowadays I’m writing more and more about MLS-owned initiatives than traditional vendor products. 🤔
“We are bolstering our agent tech stack by making a top-shelf CRM solution available to our subscribers that offers easy onboarding and time-saving integrations with other CoreLogic solutions, including MatrixTM and the MLS-Touch® mobile app, said Dave Wetzel, President and CEO of MLSListings. “Prospects CRM gives our members a powerful new tool that will help them manage clients in the most efficient and effective way possible.”
Adding a CRM as an MLS member benefit is a relatively new thing. Although C.A.R. recently added LionDesk at a state level. Integrating with MLS client portals seems to be a no-brainer. Interesting to see how far this trend goes.
I can’t express the influence MetroList has had on my career. Rick has been a solid part of the winning team at MetroList and it’s hard to imagine him gone. We all raised a glass and gave a toast to him and Frank at our Omni Lobby Bar takeover. He will be missed. #fuckcancer
“With this partnership, MLS PIN will integrate Boost into Pinergy’s Listings Manager and Tools page. This will allow MLS PIN’s more than 45,000 customers to create and launch digital ads to market their listings and agent profiles immediately through Boost, with their listing data channeling directly from Pinergy into the advertising solution for faster and easier ad creation.”
I’m really excited to talk about this new integration we just announced with MLS PIN. Boost is a drop-dead simple way for real estate agents to advertise their listings on top websites and social media. Major franchisors and large brokerages have been using this integration with their back-end systems for years now with great success.
MLS PIN is the first MLS organization in the country to bring this to their own MLS system Pinergy. Their members can go straight from inputting a listing right to that listing showing up branded to the agent on top websites and social media sites in just minutes. A huge thanks to MLS PIN CEO, Erminio Grasso for his vision in starting this effort and Aaron Kardell and his team for making it happen.
And last but not least Melissa Lindberg for keeping me and everyone on their toes.
