Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

CoreLogic extends Matrix deal and does rev share with CRMLS

Big announcement, when you think about it. CRMLS is the largest in the country in both membership size and the population is covers. Congrats!

Full Press Release Below:

California Regional MLS Joins Partner InfoNet by CoreLogic
Nation’s Largest MLS Also Extends Matrix System Agreement
May 10, 2012, Santa Ana, Calif. –

CoreLogic® (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, and California Regional MLS (CRMLS), the nation’s largest multiple listing service (MLS) provider, today announced that CRMLS has joined Partner InfoNet™ by CoreLogic. The companies also announced that CRMLS has agreed to a multi-year extension of its Matrix™ MLS system contract.

Launched in June 2010, Partner InfoNet is an innovative revenue-sharing program in which MLSs license their listing data to CoreLogic for use in risk management products for mortgage lenders, servicers, and capital markets (but not consumer outlets). With the addition of CRMLS, Partner InfoNet now encompasses nearly 1.1 million active listings and more than 450,000 real estate professionals from 78 MLSs.

Matrix is an enterprise-class MLS system that provides real estate brokers and agents with a flexible, high-performance platform for managing real estate listings. 16 MLSs serving more than 163,000 real estate professionals currently use Matrix, and six more installations are scheduled for this year. In total, CoreLogic serves approximately 550,000 real estate professionals with its MLS systems—more than half the North American market.

“Through our local member associations, we strive to provide the most dependable, convenient and affordable listing technology services available,” said Art Carter, CEO of CRMLS. “Matrix has proven to be an extremely fast and reliable MLS system that meets the needs of our progressive subscribers by supporting virtually all computing platforms and devices. Partner InfoNet supports our goal of keeping costs down for our members by simply and securely leveraging the value of our listing data.”
“This new agreement with CRMLS is a powerful endorsement of both Partner InfoNet and our Matrix MLS platform,” said Ben Graboske, senior vice president of Real Estate and Financial Services for CoreLogic. “We are honored to serve the nation’s largest MLS in these critical capacities and are working hard every day to provide the highest level of service and security in the industry.”

About CoreLogic
CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) is a leading provider of consumer, financial and property information, analytics and services to business and government. The Company combines public, contributory and proprietary data to develop predictive decision analytics and provide business services that bring dynamic insight and transparency to the markets it serves. CoreLogic has built one of the largest and most comprehensive U.S. real estate, mortgage application, fraud, and loan performance databases and is a recognized leading provider of mortgage and automotive credit reporting, property tax, valuation, flood determination, and geospatial analytics and services. More than one million users rely on CoreLogic to assess risk, support underwriting, investment and marketing decisions, prevent fraud, and improve business performance in their daily operations. The Company, headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif., has approximately 5,000 employees globally. For more information, visit www.corelogic.com.

About CRMLS
California Regional MLS is the nation’s largest Multiple Listing Service, providing products and services to over 70,000 subscribers from 33 REALTOR® Associations. California Regional MLS, located at 180 Via Verde, Suite 200 in San Dimas, California, provides access to listing data throughout the State of California. California Regional MLS has been a regional MLS for over 30 years and is dedicated to making a REAL Difference in the day-to-day business of Real Estate Professionals. For more information on California Regional MLS, contact communications@crmls.org.
CORELOGIC and the stylized CoreLogic logo is a registered trademark owned by CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. MATRIX is a common law trademark of CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. CRMLS and the stylized CRMLS logo is a trademark of the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, Inc. No trademarks shall be used without the express written consent of their respective owners.

5 MLS providers play it SAFE

Looks like Clareity is gaining some traction on their SAFE Syndication platform. Some big names here.

See full press release below:

May 7, 2012 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Clareity Security (www.clareitysecurity.com), the leading provider of data security and syndication management solutions for the real estate industry, is pleased to announce new SAFE Syndication™ agreements with the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service (MFRMLS), the Cooperative MLSs of Contra Costa Association of REALTORS®, East Bay Regional Data, Inc. and the Bay East Association of REALTORS®, and the greater Sacramento area’s MetroList Services, Inc (MetroList®). These customers have chosen SAFE Syndication™ as their solution for data compliance and distribution management joining an ever-growing list of Clareity customers.

SAFE Syndication is designed to serve as a contract management, compliance and reporting tool for MLS organizations, brokerages and franchisors. SAFE Syndication provides a consolidated system for measuring and reporting on all listing distribution activity. In addition, the compliance tools in the product provide independent verification and reporting by the MLS and/or Clareity Security as a neutral, trusted third party. These features allow the MLS to eliminate unnecessary expansion of compliance costs and refocus internal resources on more strategic projects. Most importantly, SAFE Syndication, with a focus on compliance reporting and complaint tracking, complements all existing and emerging syndication tools, along with producing detailed information to help brokers and MLS organizations make better syndication and distribution decisions.

“Starting late last year, MFRMLS went through an extensive search and review of the various listing syndication solutions available to the market. The capabilities of SAFE Syndication to meet our immediate, as well as long-term needs, were readily apparent. My team is very much looking forward to implementing SAFE Syndication as a piece of our overall data distribution strategy,” said Merri Jo Cowen, CEO of MFRMLS.

Clareity Security would like to invite everyone interested in SAFE Syndication to meet with our team. Contact sales@clareitysecurity.com to schedule a detailed presentation.

About Clareity Security:
Clareity Security, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, is the leading provider of data security, Single Sign On and compliance management products and services for the real estate industry. Our Scout for SAFEMLS® and SAFEACCESS™ products help MLS organizations and real estate professionals easily and effectively safeguard sensitive consumer information against unauthorized access and provides strong authentication solutions for secure online transactions. Additionally, Clareity Security is the creator of Safe Syndication™, the leading listing syndication and IDX/VOW compliance management tool for brokerages and MLS organizations.

Contact:
Amy Geddes, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
480-444-0014 or Email

Seain Conover is leaving CoreLogic

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, anytime someone leaves the real estate industry an angel gets his wings. Well the bells are ringing.

Looks like Seain after selling the company he and Brian de Schepper co-founded , Tarasoft, has decided to step down. You may recall CoreLogic acquired the company back in December of 2011.

I hear Seain will make one final trip up and down the escalators at the Marriott at Midyear Conference later this month, and then fade in to the Canadian wilderness from which he came….

Congrats Seain, and godspeed.

Why FBS’ new Spark platform matters

I just had to say something about the new Spark platform that FBS announced earlier this week. Often the word “game changer” is used but in this case I think it’s truly warranted.

As a 3rd party software developer in the real estate space I can attest its not easy. I see 3 points of friction to get products in to the hands of real estate professionals.

1. Data standards
2. Permissioning
3. Awareness

Credit card processing and billing is also a huge factor, and new entrants are going to appreciate an e-commerce solution. For the purposes of this post I’m going to focus on the challenges listed above.

Data standards and Permissioning.

At a recent Inman Conference I sat in on a session moderated by Mike Wurzer and Rebecca Jensen. The topic swirled around data standards. I raised the issue that even if we had a single data standard for all MLS systems in the country 3rd party data developers would still have the issue of Permissioning to deal with. As an example we can get Cloud CMA up and running with a proper RETS feed from an MLS in less than 48 hours, but it sometimes takes months to go thru the approval/permissioning process.

I’m not saying that MLS providers should just open its data to all 3rd party developers. They have the responsibility to the safeguard that data. But that problem needs to be solved. After reading FBS’ post on Spark their new Spark API looks to have the ability to manage and streamline the permissioning/approval process. This is HUUUGE.

I’m super excited knowing that our next app could realistically launch and be available to hundreds of thousands of real estate professionals, DAY ONE!

Awareness

I’m flattered that at most events I go to Cloud CMA seems to be the poster child for 3rd party MLS apps. We’ve been working hard with many MLS providers to integrate Cloud CMA in to their online stores. You can see some examples of these stores below:

Metrolist Marketplace
MLSListings PERKS
MRIS Products
Coastal Carolinas Storefront

I think all these MLS providers/vendors have done an excellent job with these sites. And I love the fact we can tailor the message to each market. But there is a fundamental issue with all of them. For the most part, they stand alone and don’t get much traffic. Little traffic means little sales. Not good for me or my revenue sharing partner (the MLS provider). The Spark Platform looks to be a way to bridge this gap.

My belief is the best solution would be to have a direct link to an MLS App Store from the MLS system itself. Not a link buried somewhere, but visible at all times. The Spark Bar solves seems to solve this issue in a very innovative and elegant way.

This is why I’m so excited about this news. With the Spark platform, Spark API and Spark Bar the whiz kids at FBS have really studied these issues and come up with what appears to be a winning solution.

Now I’m not naive enough to believe that this will be an overnight success. They will have a lot of work to do. But, the framework and thought process is solid. And it looks like the big MLS providers are jumping in.

The only problem is…. I want it now! Hell, I wanted it 20 years ago. Imagine being in Stellar and downloading Lightning. Boom.

Interview with Joel Macintosh, CEO of WolfNet

I had a chance to sit down with Joel Macintosh, CEO of WolfNet, at ARMLS‘ Technopalooza conference last week (which was great BTW).

We had a great conversation covering such topics as the history of IDX, VOWs, owning vs. leasing your website and keeping a business going for 16 years.

Joel Fun Fact: He recently got married. So be sure to congratulate him next time you see him. : )

Enjoy.

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