Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Austin and San Antonio consider consolidating to one MLS system

ABoR and SABOR Consider Merging MLS Systems

“While still in the feasibility phase, this consideration has emerged amid rapid development throughout the Central and South Texas areas, further blending Austin and San Antonio. In addition, it is driven by changing dynamics in the real estate industry, including opportunities to leverage cooperation and technology to create order across the marketplace, enhance offerings and maintain affordable rates for our subscribers.”

Interesting to see if this plays out. Getting to the point of these discussions is a huge accomplishment. In a recent post by Brian Boero of 1000watt he stated his thoughts in regards to MLS consolidation…

1. It should probably happen where MLS boundaries are significantly incongruent with natural market areas and impose burdens of time and cost on brokers and agents

2. It should probably happen if an MLS’s broker and agent customers are consistently unhappy with product, service, scope of activity or management.

3. It should probably happen if a strong business case can be made that combination will create a stronger organization with more human and financial capital directed at supporting brokers and agents.

Everything else? Case-by-case.

I think this merger idea meets a lot of his criteria. Although, having lived in San Antonio, I think culturally Austin and San Antonio are an odd fit.

Placester acquires RealSatisfied

From Inman News this morning.
Placester acquires RealSatisfiedReal estate website provider will use RealSatisfied to broaden data it offers agents

Placester sees bringing RealSatisfied under its roof as a way to further expand the range of data it can offer to agents.

The real estate website provider powers the listing search tools of a vast network of online news websites through partnerships with a range of publishers — a level of coverage that was boosted when Placester acquired HomeFinder in March.

Placester is fast becoming a juggernaut in the industry. NAR partnerships, acquisitions, franchisor deals, they are making all the right moves. Having raised 50 million dollars doesn’t hurt either.

And RealSatisfied is legit. These guys are great to work with and their product is rock solid simple to use, with an easy to understand value proposition. It was super easy to integrate in to our Cloud CMA.

Congrats to Jeff, Phil and the rest of the RealSatisfied team.

Details emerge on MRIS/TREND MLS consolidation, and its bigger than you think.

Looks like my intel was correct. MRIS and TREND MLS are indeed consolidating. But I think there is much more to this than it seems. In a email Tom Phillips of TREND MLS stated:

“So I wanted to personally share with you that TREND and MRIS are announcing our commitment to consolidate, in order to fulfill a joint vision for the next era of MLS. This consolidation will go beyond a simple joining of forces. It will create an entirely new organization that welcomes other MLSs, associations and brokers who share this vision, to invite them to participate in the formation of the new organization.”

Along with this announcement was a link to a PDF what they call, “The MLS: Evolved”

Well written and concise. I especially like their mission statement, which was also in Tom’s email;

“To preserve compensation and cooperation, promote the expansion of an orderly and efficient marketplace, and provide participating brokerage firms greater control of and access to their listing content.”

So its pretty obvious they are going for a more “broker friendly” MLS. They think data share agreements are in the past. The report also talks about tiered level of MLS access with a base option and other options to add more products/services.

After I read the document a thought occurred to me, why stop at MRIS and TREND? The model they are creating and with the technology now (which was one of their points) why couldn’t this be the start of a national consolidation of MLS providers around the country? Both MLS providers are already in multiple states, so who says how many other states they could go to? 10, 20, 50?

The key here I think is that nobody has laid out a vision/plan. While admittedly this is more a beginning framework than a plan, they have taken a pretty clear leadership position.

So I think the MLS community should watch this consolidation with great interest. If David, Tom and the other stakeholders can execute this consolidation, and get broker buy-in, you might be seeing something entirely new, and possibly the future.

MRIS and TREND MLS in merger talks

Boom! Word on the street is that MRIS and TREND MLS, two of the largest MLS providers in the country, are in merger discussions.

Just the fact that these two giants are actually putting egos aside and talking consolidation makes other much smaller MLS providers not considering consolidation look almost petty.

From what I understand they have agreed to start the process without deciding on what happens in the end (i.e. leadership, management etc.) That takes some guts.

Info is pretty light on this, if you know anything please share. You can hit me up on the tip page. https://vendoralley.wpengine.com/submit-a-tip/

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