That’s exactly what Lake County MLS member (wishes to remain anonymous) states in an email addressed to other Lake County MLS members. See a full reprint of her e-mail below:
“Subject: UNHAPPY WITH CALREDD – LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!
Dear Fellow LCAOR MEMBERS,
On March 11th at 9:00am the Board of Directors will meet to make yet another decision on the Calredd MLS system. If you have been pulling your hair out over CALREDD then you need to be present to represent yourself!
A survey was done last month and a staggering 58% of the members said the system was below inadequate, this survey was only available for one and half days and approx. 100 of you responded, imagine if it had been available for a week! So, if you thought you were alone, you are not! We need our Board of Directors to serve the membership and the membership has spoken loud and clear.
At the BOD meeting in February, it was agreed upon that due to the results of the survey a letter would be sent to CALREDD and CAR giving them an ultimatum to have certain tools functioning by March 10th . As a result of this letter a letter was sent out yesterday from CAR stating that some of these issues would be taken care of by the end of March. Calredd has NOT met the deadline of the ultimatum and how much longer will these deadlines be stretched out while we bear the brunt? Why are we bearing the brunt ? Why are we being pushed into using a system that is not ready to be launched?
As you have experienced there are numerous issues with CALREDD, their tech team recently sent me a 14 page PDF and the LACOR CALREED TEAM also have pages and pages of issues. The Calredd system was never ready to be launched when it was and consequently we have all experienced many hours anguishing over the system with embarrassing moments in front of clients. So. how long will it take for Calredd to be a system ready for use? Some say 12 months some question the software but how long do you want to wait until you have a system that you can use effectively and efficiently?
The alternative choices discussed at the BOD meeting in February if Calredd did not meat the ultimatum deadline was that LCAOR would give it’s membership the option to go back to Paragon until such time as CALREDD was ready or that we would finally join BAERIS.
As you remember Calredd was sold to us as a cutting edge, state of the art system which we all know it currently is NOT. It was also sold to us as a Statewide MLS system. How important is a statewide system to you in your business? The best system for us to be apart of would be Norcal or BAERIS if we wanted to go statewide and LACOR has always tried to hold on to it’s independence so why Calredd?
Another important factor that you may not be aware of is that LCAOR is not paying MLS dues for the Calredd system so why are the members still paying dues? I emailed the board members last week and asked them this question and only one member responded to me. I did find out however that we are still paying for Paragon! If we are paying for Paragon then why can’t we use it instead of doing the beta testing for Calredd? The biggest problem I was told was that we would have to upload to two systems – this seemed minor in consideration to the numerous complications involved with using Calredd. If you were given the choice to best run your business which system would you choose?
If Calredd wants to sell us it’s product then they need to sell us a competitive product that is ready to be launched, all bugs and all issues resolved because this is BUSINESS, we are consumers and we are paying customers! We have been dealt a bad bill of goods and the truth is that this system is not ready which is why 58% of the membership said it was inadequate.
If you feel angry because you’re are in this situation every time you have to navigate a system Fresno dumped after three weeks; if you feel gypped because you are forced into running your business using a system that was never ready to be launched; if you feel short changed because you are paying for Paragon but you can’t use it and if you are concerned that your BOD is not looking out for you then you need to be at this board meeting to make sure the right decision is made for you and for your business. Not for Calredd and not for CAR but for you! “
Second verse, same as the first.
Let’s face it, it’s mostly a political decision.
What other rational explanation could there be for an assocation/mls to put it’s members at risk by having their MLS service provided by a vendor (Concentric) with no real employees and finances that are supported by a portion of a $3 million line of credit from C.A.R.(member dues money, by the way), to calREDD, to Concentric. What kind of sustainable business model is that?
This is why the working agents and brokers in the field need to pay closer attention to what their association leadership is doing.
I 100% agree with Andy’s comment above!!
If it’s all politics then it’s real bad politics. So many businesses have suffered in Lake County under Calredd’s defunct MLS system.
The audacity to keep on marketing it to other small town associations in its current incarnation is bordering on criminal.
There is too much conflict of interest all around: our dues paying CAR to pay Calredd and now that it is proving again to be such a failure who do we call? The CAR legal hotline? hmmmm?
Who wants a MLS system monopolizing the market place anyway?
Bad idea and a defunct system and covert politics – whose going to call the pot black and whose going to fess up and take responsibility?
You got my curiosity up, what ended up happening?
Surprize, surprize, surprize…..as whats his name use to say on the Andy Griffith show!!!! Duh, Duh, Duh……and “oh really??” Did anyone HONESTLY think this boondoggle was going to work??????
Last Friday I got the president of the Lake County Association of Realtors, Anita McKee of Lakeview Properties, on the telephone and asked her about the fact that 58% of realtors in Lake County being unhappy!
She assured me that all was good, that it was really just a couple of folks, SusieQ in particular, who were unhappy and that in fact the system was working very well and that soon the last 1 or 2 issues with Concentric will be fixed.
What are we to believe???
I do remember similar messages coming from the Fresno board in early April last year………. a few days before calREDD got the boot!
The silence from Lake Co. is deafening…have they all been put on restriction? Who came up with the 58% figure? I’m not pointing fingers…I’m just curious…and wondering why we haven’t heard more from the agents of Lake Co.?
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the statewide mls and a “property centric” database of CA properties (which I think is the true CALMLS benefit) and economy of scale when negotiating with service providers, were what the CAR BOD voted on in 2008. I remember the working group planning to get RFPs. I don’t remember (maybe I’m confused…) voting to launch an internet startup company to develop calREDD. That I believe, and submit, is the problem.
Gary…I don’t think you are confused at all. Except on one thing… Concentric can’t make up its mind as to whether it is a “vendor” or and “MLS”. Either way, it’s half a**ed at that. It’s a “hey guys…help us build this thang won’t ya?” (while you pay us in the meantime, kinda thing)
And as for the supposed “state of the art” moniker they keep throwing around…do you just mind…