Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Say Yes to the MLS!

An email sent out to NORMLS members made a special announcement.

The Shareholders of these two companies voted on January 22, 2018 to consolidate into one new company to be known as Yes-MLS. The combined membership will exceed 12,000 members and will serve 36 Counties in Ohio and West Virginia. Yes-MLS will be the largest MLS in Ohio and is expected to be fully complete by early Spring 2018.

Carl DeMusz, current CEO of NORMLS will serve as CEO of Yes MLS. “This consolidation opens many doors for our members as we empower our brokerages to serve their clientele locally and on a national scale by implementing standards that knock down barriers to their businesses”, said DeMusz.

John Kurlich, current CEO of CRIS who will serve as COO of Yes MLS observed, “The ‘consolidation’, rather than a ‘merger’, enables us to create a new and forward-looking MLS for our members. One that provides accurate data and the technology to use that data in an increasingly data driven real estate environment.”

Congrats to Carl and John. Love the new name!

“NAR’s Goldberg kills AMP…”

NAR’s Goldberg Kills Amp and Powers Up Upstream

We’re starting to see the impact of a new leadership team at the National Association of REALTORS® led by Bob Goldberg, a strategic, yet practical leader that is SERIOUS about making the industry function more effectively. He also seems to be critically evaluating every investment in technology and making some bold moves to re-focus efforts.

NAR announced yesterday that is shutting down development on its Advanced Multilist Platform, or AMP. AMP was under development for a few years at a burn rate of $6 Million per year. The concept behind AMP was solid – consolidate MLS data into a single data repository and allow developers of systems like Matrix, FlexMLS, Paragon, Stratus, Rapattoni, Navica and others focus on the front-end software development.”

Victor does a good job in this post summarizing, at a very high level, what’s going on with all the initiatives and his thoughts on AMP. I don’t agree with some of his assumptions (especially the Upstream propaganda toward the end) but its a good overview.

LIBOR and HGAR talk consolidation

HGAR, LIBOR in Talks to Create Regional MLS

“The leaderships of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors and the Long Island Board of Realtors, the two largest Realtor organizations in New York State, announced on Feb. 1 that the two Realtor groups are in negotiations to create a regional multiple listing service that would service approximately 36,000 subscribers.”

36,000 is huge. That puts them in the top 5.

“MLSLI is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Long Island Board of Realtors, Inc. of West Babylon. LIBOR is a not-for-profit trade association consisting of 25,000 real estate professionals working in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn. —

HGAR is a not-for-profit trade association consisting of approximately 11,000 real estate professionals doing business in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties, as well as the Bronx and Manhattan.

One of the other things that strike me is how diverse their membership will be. I wonder what the naming might look like. Empire State MLS? Greater New York MLS? HGAR, LIBOR

Could Cloud MLX be the answer to your consolidation efforts?

CLOUD MLX LETS BROKERS AND AGENTS SEARCH DATA FROM MULTIPLE MLS PROVIDERS USING A SINGLE MODERN INTERFACE

“Rather than combining data into a single database, Cloud MLX acts as a virtual MLS layer on top of multiple MLS databases. Real estate agents are able to search for listings similar to how they search on Google, providing a modern way of searching, sharing and collaborating with MLS data, clients and other agents.

I’ve been excited to share this with everyone. I think Cloud MLX can serve as another tool in regard to consolidation challenges. Right now SFAR and BAREIS are on Rapattoni, and BridgeMLS is on Paragon. Theoretically we could have any type of MLS System under Cloud MLX and multiple MLS providers, and all those databases are still separate. This allows everyone to maintain their independence while providing their respective members with seamless access to the MLS data they need.

With this type of setup we could have launched BrightMLS (BrightMLX?) in under a month. It could also work for combined single database efforts like GRID MLS (GRID MLX?). You could have agents search either their local traditional MLS system, or login in to Cloud MLX and have access to multiple MLS providers with an easy to use modern interface. See below for a quick promo video we created to promote the Bay Area launch to get a better idea.

As is often discussed, the tech is somewhat easy, the politics are hard, but the MLS providers in the Bay Area made it happen. Kudos to K.B., Walt, DeVina and the others for starting this journey with us.

And if you are interested in learning more about Cloud MLX this video is a good start.

FBS acquires Solid Earth

FBS acquires Solid Earth’s Spring software platform to achieve powerful industry vision

“Michael Wurzer, CEO of FBS, says he looks forward to building on the foundation established when FBS and Solid Earth announced a partnership earlier this year to build the Spring Portal on the Spark API. “Spring is the best MLS consumer portal in the market and powering it with the Spark API reduces duplicate entry and data lock-in for brokers and agents,” Wurzer said. “Today, MLSs, brokers, and agents need to clearly and beautifully communicate the full-breadth of the powerful value proposition they deliver together, and Spring is laser-focused on creating the best portal to deliver on that value proposition.”

Smart (an both sides). It basically gives FBS more design focused products to sell in to its market, and the integration work is already done. Matt Fowler, Solid Earth co-founder will stay on and serve as Vice President and lead the Spring team.

and this…

“Spring and Spark together create a platform that does not exist today and achieves a long standing goal of MLS industry leadership,” Wurzer said. He noted that an initial focus is to enhance the current Spring offering to include products that help MLSs showcase all of the valuable products and services they provide to members. “Together with Flexmls, this will be the most complete MLS portal available, serving all customers of the MLS beautifully and efficiently,” Wurzer said. “

This is basically a counter to the Clareity Dashboard, which was acquired by CoreLogic earlier this year.

Unsaid in this release is any future involvement Solid Earth might have in AMP, NAR’s backend effort into the MLS business. I’ve seen Matt at many of the AMP presentations. Not sure if that is going to happen any longer.

2017 was certainly a year for consolidation, both on the MLS side and the vendor side. And I don’t think its going to slow down. Congrats to Michael and Matt and both of their teams.

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.

‘If we are going to do this, we don’t stop till we are done’…

Loved this article from Dionna Hall, CEO of REALTORS of the Palm Beaches (now REALTORS of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale). In an article written for MLS Roundtable she goes in to detail the backstory of how they put together the latest merger.

Consolidation is a Powerful Word

At the beginning of the year RAPB President, John Slivon and I discussed the possibility of a merger. We decided that being comfortable was likely short term (at best temporary); we knew the industry was changing. We wanted to address our brokers and agents pain points and felt that merging was a step toward accomplishing that goal. Fortunately, GFLR President Ron Lennen was of the same mindset. Both Presidents approached conversations with tremendous focus and intensity, a commitment of ‘If we are going to do this, we don’t stop till we are done’…and that is what we did.

Just a few years ago the MLS situation in South Florida was a mess. Great to see when you put the right people in place, with the right mindset, things can get done.

Real Estate Tech is Hot!

The article from TechCrunch by Joanna Glasner mentioned in Paul’s tweet does a good job of putting in to perspective whey so much capital is being put in to our industry. A few interesting tidbits…

“Rising interest in real estate deals comes amid a period of generally rising property and rental prices, as well as cultural and demographic shifts that are altering longstanding patterns of household formation. There’s also a sense among investors that real estate, despite being the world’s largest asset class, has historically been slow to embrace change.”

You think?

“Sure, there have already been some multi-billion-dollar businesses like Zillow and Redfin that brought online, mobile and data analysis capabilities to the industry. But real estate VCs believe that it’s still very early innings.

“still very early innings”

“Real estate investments can deliver big returns, too. After a string of lackluster technology IPOs, tech-focused real estate brokerage Redfin reversed the trend with big first-day gains and sustained aftermarket performance. Zillow, which went public in 2011, has also been a big hit with investors, maintaining a market cap of more than $7 billion despite a history of steep losses.

For those looking for liquidity, it’s also worth noting that the real estate industry knows a thing or two about generating returns. After all, before it was co-opted by venture capitalists, the word exit usually applied to real estate.”

Love that last sentence.

Michele Conn to lead T3 Sixty new M&A services

Speaking of M&A….

Michele Conn

T3 Sixty Adds New Mergers & Acquisitions ServicesExperienced M&A specialist Michele Conn joins the T3 Team

“As of today, T3 Sixty, the consulting arm of the Swanepoel T3 Group, announces the launch of a new group focusing exclusively on the strategic evaluation, design, negotiation and management of mergers and acquisitions within the residential real estate brokerage and technology sectors.

The group is led by Michele Conn, the newest member to join the T3 Sixty team and an executive with over 20 years of experience working with growing real estate and technology companies.”

Consolidation-mania

What a crazy couple weeks. Here’s my list of recent M&A activity.

July 25th – FNF acquires Real Geeks
August 2nd – CoreLogic acquires Clareity
August 2nd – RealPage acquires On-Site (rental)
August 2nd – Ben Kinney acquires Automabots
August 3rd – Thomas H. Lee Partners acquires TenX (auction.com)

I’m sure I’m missing something. Plus, I’m still hearing another major deal could be announced next week (terms and $ issues). Crazy!!

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