August 2009 - Vendor Alley

OnBoard officially ends its IDX data aggregation efforts

August 28th, 2009

IDX ain’t easy. OnBoard Informatics learned that the hard way.

It’s been almost 2 months since Vendor Alley first broke this story. Now OnBoard Informatics has issued a press release confirming what Vendor Alley readers already knew.

Congrats to LPS Real Estate Group. Larry Ross, General Manager of Listing Aggregation for LPS REG, and his team have has been doing it, and doing it well, for quite sometime. Nice win!

Onboard Informatics Selects LPS Real Estate Group to Deliver Data Aggregation Services

By Stacey Ret, Director of Marketing

pressrealeaseNew York, NY. August 26, 2009 – Onboard Informatics, the premier data services provider to top-tier real estate, media and technology companies, has selected LPS Real Estate Group, Inc.’s Data Aggregation Services to process and standardize real estate data for Onboard Informatics’ clients. Formerly known as Cyberhomes and FNRES MLS, LPS Real Estate Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE:LPS), a leading provider of integrated technology and services to the mortgage and real estate industries.

The agreement between the two companies helps to speed the delivery of Multiple Listing Service (MLS) Internet Data Exchange (IDX) data to Onboard and its customers. LPS Real Estate Group provides data services for clients using its standardization process for millions of active property listings from more than 400 MLS boards across the country. When Onboard completes its licensing agreement with a new MLS area, LPS Real Estate Group will quickly deliver its comprehensive data aggregation services, which include importing MLS listing data from hundreds of different systems, placing the data and photos into standardized formats, checking the files for corruption and validating key elements like addresses. By completing the “heavy lifting” of complex data aggregation and formatting, LPS Real Estate Group will dramatically reduce Onboard’s set-up time and expense.

The highly successful January 2009 launch of Onboard’s Lifestyle Listing Engine (LLE) resulted in a dramatic increase in demand to expand MLS market coverage. Onboard responded to their customers’ requirements by working with LPS Real Estate Group to reduce the time and expense needed to meet the expansion demand.

Marc Siden, CEO of Onboard, said: “Onboard’s new agreement with LPS Real Estate Group will allow our clients to quickly gain the benefit of a national MLS footprint. Our analysis determined that LPS Real Estate Group provided the most reliable, timely, cost-effective data aggregation service in the market. The relationship also will enable our highly qualified internal teams to continue to focus on what we do best – providing the best solutions to our client base through our unique and ever-evolving products and services.”

Commenting on the agreement, Larry Ross, General Manager of Listing Aggregation for LPS Real Estate Group, said: “We are delighted that Onboard has chosen us as their listing aggregation solution. We are confident that our data aggregation service, which is the most comprehensive in the industry, will allow Onboard to successfully meet its business objectives, and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”

About Onboard Informatics

Since 2001, Onboard Informatics has provided comprehensive local, regional and national real estate data solutions, powerful web tools and web services to some of the most innovative companies in real estate, media, and technology industries.

Onboard combines its expertise in data aggregation, standardization, and integration with expert consulting, transforming the complexity of data into meaningful solutions to support their clients in achieving business objectives. Privately held since its founding, Onboard is located in the heart of the world’s financial center in the Wall Street area of New York City. For more information about Onboard Informatics or to request a demo, visit www.onboardinformatics.com.

About Lender Processing Services

LPS is a leading provider of integrated technology and services to the mortgage industry. LPS offers solutions that span the mortgage continuum, including lead generation, origination, servicing, workflow automation (Desktop) portfolio retention and default, augmented by the company’s award-winning customer support and professional services. Approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by volume are serviced using LPS’ Mortgage Servicing Package (MSP). In fact, many of the nation’s top servicers rely on MSP, including eight of the top 10 and 14 of the top 20. LPS also offers proprietary mortgage and real estate data and analytics for the mortgage and capital markets industries. For more information about LPS, please visit www.lpsvcs.com.

The LPS Real Estate Group has relationships with more than 300 MLS organizations, 250 broker companies, settlement services companies, and more than 350,000 real estate professionals. The technology applications include innovative tools such as Paragon™; the reInsight™ collection; rDesk® Broker & Agent Suite of products; TransactionPoint®; DocCentral; Cyberhomes; the Real Estate & Living Media Network that generates revenue for its publishers; as well as a robust real estate property and tax database that includes 285 million residential and commercial property, ownership, sales, assessment and mortgage records. This represents detailed information on at least 92 percent of U.S. property ownership records in more than 2,000 counties with over 648,000 new ownership records added monthly. For more information about LPS Real Estate Group, please visit www.lpsreg.com.

# # #

Onboard Informatics Contact:

Stacey Ret, Director, Marketing
Onboard Informatics
sret at onboardinformatics dot com
646-747-4395

LPS Real Estate Group Media Contact:

Laura Buser, VP, Marketing & Communications
Laura.buser at lpsvcs dot com
949-681-4852

On Persistence

August 27th, 2009

Some of you that know me or have worked with me know that I keep a quote on my office door (when I had one!) or on my wall. The quote is about persistence. It goes like this:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

-Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States

I just wanted to share a quick story about a friend, his name is Mike Banhagel.

Mike is a great guy and one of Dan’s best friends, he works in architecture and land development. Over 7 years ago he told Dan and I about an idea he had for a new kind of pot. The type of pot that are used in nurseries for plants, trees and such. This new kind of pot makes it easier to transfer large or small plants from their pots to the ground. He called them “zip pots“.

He had many false starts, and setbacks, but he never gave up. Even having a full time job he worked year after year on his idea when he could.

Yesterday Dan got an email from Mike with one of the most beautiful set of pictures I have ever seen. You see his pots have made it into a little company you might have heard of, Home Depot.

I’m going to add this picture to the quote on my wall to remind me to never give up, keep going, and “press on”!

Congrats Mike!!

zippot2

zippot3

zippot1

Don't they end up killing prophets?

August 26th, 2009

Fresno MLS’ conversion to calREDD’s Concentric MLS system has hit the main stream media, or at least Inman News.

In an article called “New MLS service catches heart-Bumpy start for CALMLS’s calREDD” writer Erik Pisor does his best to cover all angles. Lots of spinning going on, from the people interviewed in the article along with some of the comments.

In the article Erik quotes one of my blog posts

‘ The concept and launching of calREDD has also drawn skepticism from others in the vendor community.

“Greg Robertson, co-founder of W&R Studios and former vice president and general manager of real estate tech company eNeighborhoods, prophesized in his Vendor Alley blog that “calREDD will soldier on as a solution for smaller associations in the state, and ultimately fail.” ‘

bud

“Prophesized”? Really? I’m sure “predicted” would have sufficed, or maybe I should change the name of the blog to “Vendor Buddha” (although some might relate the change in name to my girth and not Erik’s choice of words!

Clairvoyance aside, this story has so much drama and intrigue I can’t wait to see what happens next!

shakespeare

It’s almost sounds like one of Billy Shakespeare’s plays..

The Fair Maiden(s)
The 155,000 REALTOR(R) members of C.A.R. need rescuing! And of course Ed Krafchow (who really doesn’t qualify as a “maiden”, but work with me here.)

The Jealous King
C.A.R having the audacity to think it can start/run a statewide MLS (calREDD). “One ring to rule them all!”

The Old Guard
MLS Provider leadership who see calREDD “as a solution is search of a problem”.

The Young Upstarts
Concentric; C.A.R.’s MLS Vendor of choice for calREDD. An untested group of people and technology formed by former Rapattoni employees.

The Irony
Rapattoni is losing business to a company who was started by former employees.

The Knights Of The Round Table
CARETS?

More Irony
calREDD joins CARETS. WTF?

We’re only in ACT I and a new show, which promises to be a blockbuster is less than a month away!

CalREDD has Fresno MLS members seeing RED.

August 20th, 2009

The early reports are in and they are not good for CalREDD or their new MLS vendor Concentric.

angry

Here’s some of the feedback I’ve been reading….

calREDD MLS <>
“It’s too bad you didn’t consult with a real Real Estate agent when you developed this program. I resent being this much of a guinea pig at the expense of losing sales due to your poor program.”

Fresno Real Estate Market Talk: Fresno MLS CalRedd system starts off badly
“They should have had a transition period where our old system, “Rappatoni” would work and we could migrate to the new “CalRedd” system. That is not the case, and basically our business is somewhat paralyzed until we can get the data correct.”

London Properties: Fresno Valley Real Estate and Homes:CalRedd
” one thing she has learned so far this that when you click on “think” don’t keep clicking it let the system have time to down load”

From our own comments on Vendor Alley, one reader comments:
“Not impressed with CalREDD at the moment. I’ve used Rapattoni, MLXchange, MLSListings, Paragon, and a couple of other MLS’s in the past. CalREDD is the worst one. It is slow and also missing simple functionality that can be found in all of the above mentioned MLS’s. Fresno made a big mistake by switching over from a far greater system in Rapattoni.”

I’ve been in this business long enough to know that every MLS conversion has its fair share of nightmares. Fresno is a relatively small MLS (about 4,000 members) and C.A.R. is trying to convince everyone they have what it takes to be a statewide MLS provider. You would think that with such a bright spotlight upon them they would take extra special care on getting this right.

Warren Buffett gives nod to LPS Real Estate Group

August 13th, 2009

wbrdesk

I missed this while at Inman, but thought it worth noting. This is a huge win and validation for LPS Real Estate Group. The fact that they have been able to keep them as a customer for so long, mirrored with this announcement of expansion of services is a huge win and validation of LPS Real Estate Group.

If you aren’t familiar with HomeServices of American they are the real estate company owned by Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Click here to see a list of HSoA real estate companies, click here.

LPS Real Estate Group Signs Multi-Year Agreement to Provide rDesk® Broker Suite of Products to Eight HomeServices of America Companies

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – August 5, 2009 – Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS), a leading provider of integrated technology and services to the mortgage and real estate industries, today announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement to provide its rDesk® Broker Suite of products, offered by its LPS Real Estate Group division, to eight operating companies that are part of the HomeServices of America, Inc (HSoA) network.

These eight companies have signed contracts for a variety of rDesk® Broker Suite products, including broker and agent Web sites, lead and contact management, comparative market analysis (CMA) and document management. The comprehensive, Web-based suite of integrated software solutions gives brokers the online marketing and productivity tools they need to create a competitive edge. These tools help them acquire more leads that can be converted to clients, work with buyers and sellers to close more transactions, and maintain lifelong customer relationships.

The HSoA companies currently leveraging rDesk are: Edina Realty (which services North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin); Kansas City-based Reece & Nichols; Prudential California Realty; Long Realty Company in Arizona; CBSHome Real Estate in Omaha, Nebraska; Champion Realty, Inc. in Maryland; and Home Real Estate and Woods Bros Realty, both in Nebraska.

“Over the years, the rDesk® Broker Suite’s depth and breadth of content and functionality have evolved, in great part, from input offered by innovative, market-leading brokers and thought leaders like the HSoA companies,” said John Hensley, chief product and technology officer, LPS Real Estate Group.

“Since its inception, the rDesk® platform has leveraged new technology and standards to deliver brokers and agents a Web-based integrated solution that meets their growing business needs and keeps them ahead of their competition.”

An affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Minneapolis-based HSoA is the nation’s second largest provider of homeownership services and has a nationwide network of companies in 19 states that offers integrated real estate services, including brokerage services, mortgage originations, title and closing services, property and casualty insurance, home warranties and other homeownership services.

“These companies are leaders in their respective markets,” said Ron Peltier, HomeServices chairman and CEO. “To further that leadership position, they must offer products and services that set them apart from the competition. rDesk® is a product that both strengthens market presence and enhances the customer experience.”

The rDesk® Broker Suite includes rDesk® Broker Website, Resource Center and Contact Manager; rDesk® CMA and Buyers Tour; a turnkey marketing campaign manager and professional flier program; the industry’s most thorough neighborhood, school and environment reports; and a centralized document management system that can easily integrate DocCentral™, the LPS non-proprietary document management system that is becoming the industry standard.

The rDesk® Broker Website platform creates custom-branded, content-rich and scalable company Web sites that make it easy for customers to search for homes, get community information, investigate financing options and request additional information.

The Broker Suite also includes rDesk®’s exclusive Client Relationship Manager, which creates a broker’s online communication and customer management hub for the entire office with easy-to-use software tools to manage leads, customers, listings and transactions. The system instantly routes new leads to participating agents and then ensures that the agents respond within the timeframe set by the broker. Client Relationship Manager also accommodates real estate teams, other office groups and e-teams to share in new prospects collected by the broker’s own site and in their market’s portion of more than 600,000 leads LPS Real Estate Group generates to its broker and agent customers each year.

For more information on rDesk® products, contact Michael McCulloch at 480.556.9848 or e-mail michael.mcculloch@lpsvcs.com.

About Lender Processing Services
LPS is a leading provider of integrated technology and services to the mortgage and real estate industries. LPS offers solutions that span the mortgage continuum, including lead generation, origination, servicing, workflow automation (Desktop) portfolio retention and default, augmented by the company’s award-winning customer support and professional services. Approximately 55 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar volume are serviced using LPS’ Mortgage Servicing Package (MSP). In fact, many of the nation’s top servicers rely on MSP, including eight of the top 10 and 14 of the top 20. LPS also offers proprietary mortgage and real estate data and analytics for the mortgage and capital markets industries. For more information about LPS, please visit www.lpsvcs.com.

About HomeServices of America
HomeServices of America, Inc., based in Minneapolis, Minn., is the second-largest homeownership service provider in the United States. Owned by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., HomeServices’ operating companies offer integrated real estate services, including brokerage services, mortgage originations, title and closing services, property and casualty insurance, home warranties and other homeownership services. HomeServices Relocation, LLC is the full-service relocation arm of HomeServices which provides every aspect of domestic and international relocation to corporations around the world. HomeServices operates in 19 states with more than 17,000 associates under the following residential real estate brand names: Carol Jones REALTORS; CBSHOME Real Estate; Champion Realty Inc.; Edina Realty; EWM REALTORS; Harry Norman, REALTORS; HOME Real Estate; HUFF Realty; Iowa Realty; Long Companies; Prudential California Realty; Prudential Carolinas Realty; Prudential First Realty; Prudential York Simpson Underwood Realty; RealtySouth; Rector-Hayden REALTORS; Reece & Nichols; Roberts Brothers Inc.; Semonin REALTORS and Woods Bros. Realty. Information about HomeServices and the locations of its subsidiary companies is available at www.homeservices.com.

Investor Contact: Parag Bhansali, 904.854.8640, parag.bhansali@lpsvcs.com

Media Contact: Michelle Kersch, 904.854.5043, michelle.kersch@lpsvcs.com

Real Estate Technology All-Stars!

August 10th, 2009

I’m not quite recovered from Inman Connect but wanted to post a few things while they are fresh in my mind.

Once again, Brad Inman and his team put on an incredible conference. I’m not sure if you caught this but Brad was in Vegas, at a family event, the day before the conference got started. Imagine that, your in Vegas partying your butt off while one of your company’s biggest events is about to start. Brad’s obviously got a talented group of dedicated people working with him to have that kind of confidence and success (It was announced that attendance at the event was bigger than expected!) Show the love to your all-star team Brad; One word – “BONU$”

: )

I have to say that my favorite part of the event was the “Connect Create” reveal at the end of the conference. Glenn Kelman and Kevin Levent “Duet” were hilarious but you got to give it up to Diverse Solutions and Real Estate Webmasters.

Connect Create was an open challenge to see what a group of developers/designers could build in a 48 hour period. Diverse and REW were the two teams. I can’t imagine why more teams didn’t show up, but I’m sure after all the great feedback and publicity this will be a highlight of future Inman Connect conferences.

But let me be more specific about the teams that did show up, because to me this was about the effort of some great individuals:

Jonathan Mabe, Jennifer Orser, and Andrew Mattie from Diverse Solutions.

The Real Estate Webmasters (Wednesday night, North Beach, around midnight)

Morgan Carey, Philip Pond, and Mike Griffiths from Real Estate Webmasters.

From the time these group of people got on the stage to the time to the time they left I had a huge smile on my face. Both apps were incredible and the fact that they were built in less than 48 hours is even more amazing.

I have to give it up to Justin LaJoie from Diverse for a great idea and possible glimpse in to the future. I was even more amazed at Philip, Mike and Morgan from Real Estate Webmasters. These guys lived the “work hard/play hard” ethos at the event. Without even knowing it Dan Woolley and I shared a cab with them to the Beer for Bloggers event. Then they started popping up all over the place!

We caught them later Wednesday night at the “Secret After Party” at Tony Niks in North Beach, then the next night at The Black Magic Voodoo Lounge! When did they get a chance to program anything!

Glenn Roberts did a great write up about both teams and the challenge you can read it here.

Well done to both teams and remember you heard about these real estate all-stars here first on Vendor Alley!

UPDATE: Dan Woolley has written a few posts on his experiences at Inman Connect:

Inman Connect Wrap Up
Inman ConnectTech Wrap Up

7DS shows us how its done….

August 7th, 2009

Right out of the gate 7DS Associates (Rob Hahn and Jeff Corbett) show everyone at Inman Connect how to throw a party. If you were lucky enough to be at Fluid last night you know what I’m talking about. The Twitterarti were in full force along with a cornucopia of “who’s who” in the real estate industry.

Thanks guys!!

Thursday night at Inman…..

August 6th, 2009

The super secret after party was a huge success! Many thanks to Kelly Roark for suggesting Tony Niks! I’m not sure they knew what hit them, we might have to give them warning next time! We had a great crowd of people who showed up and brought it! Kelly and I have some ideas for Inman in NYC, so get ready.

Several things going on tonight. Most of us will be at the Black Magic Voodoo Lounge where Sweet Michael Hayes will be guest bar tending. Don’t bother getting there till late, action starts around 11PM.

black magic 2

Other private parties are going on. Not sure if I’m going to make them all, but we are gonna do our best so that you, our loyal reader, will get the full scoop.

And remember the last call at House of Shields is at 1:45AM.

Tonight's After Party details!

August 5th, 2009

Roubini predicts a good time. — Roubini says...

What:
“The After Party”
Join us for a good time as we share a few stories and more than a few drinks. Cash bar, but you’ll never know who might buy you a drink!

When
Wednesday night, August 5th.
10PM – ?

Where:

Tony Niks
Neighborhood: North Beach/Telegraph Hill
1534 Stockton Street
(between Columbus Ave & Green St)
San Francisco, CA 94133

Anyone who has detail on BH&G Piano Bar party tonight please DM me details at @gregrobertson

See you tonight!!!

Inman Connect-Day One Recap

August 5th, 2009

REBarCamp SF at Trulia HQ
Lunch at The Dock
Pre-“Beer for Bloggers” drink at Maxfields
Dave and Bud at bar, making every one curious.
Shared cab to “Beer for Bloggers” with a few Canadians.
Scored drink tickets from Alice.
Stalked by paparazzi!
Left for dinner to Bourbon and Branch, per Suzanne‘s recommendation
Silly Suzanne! Bourbon and Branch serves no food!
Cafe Monoco is just down the street!
Dave and Bud pop up again. What’s up with Mr IS and Mr Ed?
Landed at the Redwood Room at The Clift. Trulia markerheads and Twitterati are abound. Left for the Palace at Midnight, but the last call at Maxfields was at 11:45PM : (