Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Up shit creek without a paddle

Looks like Andrea Brambila of Inman News is back at it again with one of her favorite subjects, NAR wasting their members money.

In a post entitled “What Does Upstream Have To Show For Itself?” she surgically disects the “dream” of the Upstream initiative. Frankly there are so many juicy quotes its hard to list them. Here’s a few tidbits that caught my attention.

“In May 2015, NAR’s board of directors, made up of about 800 members, approved $12 million for NAR subsidiary Realtors Property Resource (RPR) to build Upstream and a related, but separate project called Advanced Multilist Platform (AMP). Upstream is set to exhaust its $6 million share of the funds — which don’t have to be repaid — by the end of 2017.”

I’d forgotten is was that much money.

“According to the CEOs of the two MLSs that will deploy Upstream’s original plan — RMLS and MLSListings — RPR did not publish data mapping tables they needed in order to integrate with Upstream until a month ago, on September 25, 2017.”

Remember when Dale Stinton and Alex blamed MLS vendors for delays. Good times…good times.

“You can’t say people aren’t cooperative when they don’t have enough information to be cooperative or not,” Harrison said.

John Mosey, president and CEO of pilot market NorthstarMLS, agreed.

“The problems are entirely between Upstream and RPR. I don’t think they are between the vendor community. The MLSs that have signed up for the pilots, every one of us have done everything possible to make this work,” he said.

…

“No one knows what the hell Upstream’s doing and there’s questions as to whether they do,” Mosey added, saying that, as far as he could tell, the broker direct feed was a return to status quo.

I love John Mosey.

“Toward the end of Inman’s interview with Mosey, he declared he wished he hadn’t taken the call.

“Because when you announce that [nothing’s happened] — which is absolutely true — there will be a segment of the broker community that uses this as an excuse to say the MLSs are uncooperative and it’s a lie. It’s a lie from the get-go.”

Did I say how much I love John yet?

All in all I think HAR president Cindy Hamann said it best.

“People are getting paid for this,” said Hamann, a real estate broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Anderson Properties and 23-year Realtor. “That makes me mad. That makes me angry. This is members’ money. I’m a hardworking member who is very proud that I was able to send my kids to college without college debt because of real estate. And they haven’t started yet? That makes me angry because that means [Upstream’s] going to come back asking for more money.”

And something tells me that Andrea/Inman isn’t done posting this week.

Happy Halloween!

Here’s the rest of the gang.

Listing Bits: Denee Evans, CEO of CMLS, talks best practices, compliances and member advocacy

The concept of the MLS creates a strange contradiction for brokers who are both competing with one another, yet sharing inventory by way of compensation and cooperation. In the middle of it all is CMLS, challenged with refereeing any acrimony between brokers and MLSs, promoting best practices, and supporting its membership of 203 MLS providers representing 1.2 million subscribers. At the helm is Denee Evans, the CEO of this premiere organization dedicated to leading the MLS industry in North America.

Denee is a self-proclaimed small-town girl who grew up in Nevada, earning a degree in finance with a specialization in real estate from UNLV. She has always been involved in the industry in some form, doing flips, additions, as well as scrape and builds. Denee spent more than a decade in retail banking, where she dealt with home equity and mortgage loans. Prior to her role with CMLS, Denee was the Executive Director for EnergyFit Nevada, a nonprofit working to make homes more energy efficient.
Through EnergyFit’s efforts to add sustainability information to the MLS, she learned about the opening for CMLS CEO and threw her hat into the ring. Today, Greg asks Denee the tough questions around how to address MLS’s that don’t comply with best practices, the best way for CMLS to support its members, and the organization’s partnership with NAR. Denee explains the ‘blessing and the curse’ of taking on the role of CEO as an outsider in the MLS industry and the benefit for consumers when organized real estate’s stakeholders collaborate. Listen in and learn about the CMLS initiative to create an interactive tool that would assist MLSs in developing a plan to implement best practices.

What’s Discussed:

How Denee’s background in banking informs her understanding of real estate
The intense interview process she experienced to become CEO of CMLS
The blessing and the curse of being an MLS outsider
Denee’s take on the ‘us v. them’ mentality of industry stakeholders
The dichotomy around brokers competing, yet sharing inventory
The challenge for MLS execs to make diverse stakeholders happy
The benefit for consumers when stakeholders cooperate
Denee’s role as an advocate for MLS execs
Denee’s contention that pain points exist in MLS’s of all sizes
The ‘wall of shame’ identifying who hasn’t complied with CMLS best practices
Greg’s proposal to offer free CMLS memberships to non-compliant MLSs

CMLS’s plans to create a best practices interactive tool
– Developed at last CMLS strategic planning session
– Could grow into certification necessary for membership

How CMLS should provide support to its members
– Education v. leadership/advocacy
– Study of industry initiatives to identify needs (e.g.: Upstream)
The controversy around CMLS’s partnership with NAR
– CMLS members assigned seats on NAR committees
– Speak as national voice for CMLS

Resources:

White Paper 7.42
2017 CMLS Best Practices Survey Brief

Connect with Denee Evans:

The Council of Multiple Listing Services
Denee on LinkedIn
Denee on Twitter (Nice hair)

Looking for a new gig?

MLS Manager – OKLAHOMA CITY METROPOLITAN ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

“The Oklahoma City Metropolitan Association of REALTORS® is seeking an experienced MLS Manager to direct our 5600 member organization, MLSOK, Inc.

The MLS Manager must be fully knowledgeable of the relationship between vendors and MLSOK, Inc., all governing documents, legal issues relevant to the MLS system, and fully conversant with the real estate profession. “

Find out more about this gig and others at the Vendor Alley Job Board!

Listing Bits: Katie Smithson, W+R Studios’ Director of MLS Services, talks about being a professional woman in real estate tech

Katie Smithson picks her battles. Even well-meaning colleagues occasionally make insulting or offensive comments, and a professional woman has to decide what she can brush off and what she simply cannot accept. Though the lines can be blurry, nine years in the industry have taught Katie how to establish boundaries and present herself as a professional.

Katie grew up in Franklin, Tennessee, and went to school at Tennessee Technological University. Discouraged by the boys’ club that was electrical engineering, she changed her plans and pursued a degree in marketing. Her first foray into sales and customer service was at a Sprint/Nextel store back in Franklin, where she saw the first MLS searches on a Blackberry. After a move to Knoxville, Katie worked in marketing for a local mortgage company that happened to use CRS Data for tax purposes. Tired of spending her days in a cubicle, she noticed an opening for a trainer at CRS. Katie won them over and secured her first job in real estate. After four years working with agents, realtors and MLS execs to implement the use of CRS products, Katie had a conversation with Greg in a lobby bar at CMLS Boston, and the rest is history.

She has worked at W+R Studios for five years, serving as Director of MLS Services since 2016. Today she shares the details of her activism through the Georgia Women’s Policy Institute, the challenges for women in the real estate industry, and her advice around establishing professional boundaries.

What’s Discussed:

Why Katie gave up on electrical engineering to pursue a marketing degree
Katie’s early sales and customer service experience at Sprint/Nextel
How Katie got involved with the real estate industry
Katie’s role as Director of MLS Services at W+R Studios
The shift from training to sales
Katie’s work with the Georgia Women’s Policy Institute
– Issues affecting women, children
– Get in front of legislators
The challenges for women in the real estate industry
How Katie establishes boundaries as a professional woman
The complications of alcohol as part of industry culture
How Katie’s reputation in the industry has improved her experience with sexism

Katie’s advice for women coming up in the industry
– Keep your head on straight
– Maintain professionalism
– Have a buddy

The challenge of dressing appropriately for women in a business environment
Katie’s recommendations around resources for sales executives

Resources:

CRS Data

Arianna Huffington on Repeating Outfits

‘The Rock’ Test for Sexual Harassment

Inc. Magazine

Connect with Katie Smithson:

W+R Studios

Georgia Women’s Policy Institute

Katie on LinkedIn

BAREIS MLS announces member assistance due to recent fires

BAREIS MLS® Announces Assistance to Members Affected by Northern California Fires Regional MLS Offers to Waive Fees, Replace Lockboxes and Keys, and Make Cash Donations

“As an initial step, BAREIS is waiving its fees for members directly affected by the fires, which have destroyed at least 8,400 structures. The MLS has been reaching out to broker members to get the names of agents directly affected and offer help in relief efforts. To date, BAREIS has received requests for assistance from more than 70 members who have lost their homes, and has provided over $70,000 in Visa gift cards to help them get back on their feet. The MLS has also waived fees for these members for the next 12 months, and will replace all destroyed lockboxes and keys.”

I was up in the Santa Rosa area helping BAREIS rollout their new products and services just about a week before the fires started. Breaks my heart to see the devastation. Kudos to K.B. and team for making this effort.

Austin Board of REALTORS promotes Stan Martin to Director of MLS

Austin Board of REALTORS:

“We are very proud to announce that Stan Martin has been promoted to Director of MLS. Effective immediately, Stan will assume the responsibility for leading efforts to continue to drive strategic relevance and operational excellence of the MLS for ABoR in partnership with its Board of Directors.
Martin is an active leader in the MLS industry, earning the Council of MLS’s CMLX3 Executive Certification and serving on its Finance Section Council. He also serves on the Board of Directors for MLS Grid, participates in the CoreLogic Advisory Group and is actively working with RESO to provide testing platforms for developers and brokers.”

Congrats Stan! Well deserved.

Point Counterpoint on “MLS of Choice”

“MLS of Choice” is really a poor choice of wording. I think someone at Inman News coined the phrase. It gives the wrong impression of what 7.42 and 7.43 are really all about. But lucky for us we have Tom and Stan! Tom Berge Jr., NAR’s current chairman of the Multiple Listing Issues and Polices Committee, did a great job outlining their recommendations in a video which served as a supplement to an F.A.Q. page.

As a counterpoint Stan Harke, CEO of Western Regional Information Systems & Technology, Inc., also created a video outlining their concerns over “unintended consequences” of the policy change. He makes a few good points (His “pocket listing” scenario is quite clever) if you can make it through the cheesy music.

Then there are some who believe this might be a giant conspiracy! Just don’t shoot the messenger.

Give and you shall receive…

Concierge Auctions Announces Auction With Giveback Homes To Raise Funds For Hurricane Relief

“As a company with strong Texas ties and an office in Austin, we wanted to make sure that we did everything we can to help,” said Laura Brady, President of Concierge Auctions. “When the storm hit, members of our team volunteered with immediate needs and donations. However, there are still many people in deep and profound need and this auction will raise money to help those who are struggling.”

The auction pulls together a wide variety of experiences and services that will be of interest to consumers and real estate professionals. “We are so grateful to everyone who has donated their time, their property and their services,” added Brady. “Many of these experiences would not be available otherwise.”

You can find out more here.

Lone Wolf buys Instanet Solutions

Man, Victor has the scoop with this one…

Lone Wolf acquires Instanet Solutions

“Today, Lone Wolf, one of the leading providers of broker accounting and management solutions, announced its acquisition of fellow Canadian company, Instanet Solutions. This is the second transaction management software acquisition in the past two weeks. Fidelity National Financial, Inc. recently acquired a majority interest in Skyslope, another highly regarded transaction management solution.”

The Private Equity firm, Vista, owns Lone Wolf. They made a minority investment in Lone Wolf in 2015, then took control with another investment in 2016.

In 2016 Vista inserted a new CEO and Executive chairman (and fired about 40 Lone Wolf employees.) Nobody is talking about price but this has huge implications for associations and MLS providers.

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