Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

DOM during a Pandemic

MLSs Dealing With The Pandemic: Virtual Open Houses and DOM

“The problem, however, is that pausing DOM distorts the accuracy of the data in the system. Years from now when the pandemic is hopefully a distant memory, we should be able to look back at the data and see the effect the pandemic had on days on market. If we see some markets where there’s no effect (because DOM was paused) and other markets where it wasn’t, that’s going to create a misleading picture. Another reason not to pause DOM is that no competitive advantage or disadvantage is created for any agent, the pandemic is impacting everyone the same. Lastly, the way DOM works in Flexmls, pausing DOM is way more complicated than one might think, so not messing with it really helps us out, too, and creates less of a chance for problems.”

The drama around “Days On Market” never ends. I think this post from FBS makes a good point of why DOM should not be ‘paused”. Good to hear CRMLS decided not to pause DOM.

I had my 15-year-old son try FBS’s new “FlōPlan”, here’s what happened…

So we are all under lockdown due to the corona-virus. Schools are closed, and since my wife teaches 2nd grade the Robertson house is full.

I’ve been wanting to create a floor plan of my house for a while now. I got my hands on the Leica DISTO E7100i laser measuring device to make it easier for me. But with the kids in the house, I had another idea.

Every since FBS announced “FlōPlan” I’ve been intrigued. FBS hasn’t officially launched FlōPlan, but I knew it is licensing the software behind “FlōPlan” from a company based in Finland called CubiCasa. So my actual test was on the free official CubiCasa app in the App Store.

I asked my oldest son, Cole, who is 15 years old, to download the app on his iPhone. I told him the app was a way to create floor plans. I didn’t give him any other directions other than to try and use the app to make a floor plan of the upstairs of our house. He headed upstairs.

Less than a minute later he came down the stairs and said he had a problem. The app asked him to put a name in for his company, and he tried “Test company” but that was already taken. I told him to call it something else, he did, it worked and he went back upstairs.

About 4 minutes later he came downstairs again. I wondered what problem he might have encountered this time. He went to the kitchen and poured himself something to drink. I asked him what the problem was this time? He said, “Nothing, I’m done.” “Done, done?” I asked. That was quick, I thought, maybe a little over 3 minutes? Wow.

So I asked to see the floor plan, the app said it was “in progress”. Their site says the floor plan will be sent to you within 24 hours. It took about 7 hours and we received our floor plan, which you can see above.

All I can say is this shit is super legit! Color me impressed. My whole house would most likely take less than 10 minutes. I checked the dimensions in my son’s room (with my fancy Leica digital laser measuring device) and it was only off by 2 inches.

Side note: FBS doesn’t think the dimensions calculated by FlōPlan should be used as official square-footage, more as a representation of the “flow” of the home.

Adding floor plans to listings is a no-brainer. Consumers would LOOOOOVE them. And I think the MLS is in the perfect position to capture this data. As I said in my first blog post about it.

“On the surface this could seem like just another partnership with a third party software app. But under the surface, the real innovation is about MLS providers capturing a new digital asset. An asset that could be used as leverage against existing portals and make MLS and brokerages more relevant to consumers again.
And what do I mean by “leverage”? Any contract negotiations come up with anyone regarding MLS data, the MLS can negotiate (new and old agreements) new rates and terms based on the inclusion of floorpans.”

FBS introduces FlōPlan, a super easy way to make floorpans, but that’s just the beginning.

The only way MLS providers can get this type of leverage is to have a large inventory of homes where the floor plan is captured. It’s a classic “chicken or egg” scenario. The key to capturing this data would be ease of use and maybe some sort of incentive. After this test, I’m convinced that either the seller themselves, the agent, or even their kids could capture this information without any real effort, and that’s key.

Cock-a-doodle-do

FBS introduces FlōPlan, a super easy way to make floorpans, but that’s just the beginning.

FBS Introduces FlōPlan: Game-Changing Floor Plan Innovation for the MLS

Continuing its 40+ years of providing technology and services that maximize the core value of Multiple Listing Services (MLSs), FBS introduces FlōPlan, game-changing floor plan and digital capture technology that empowers MLSs to create new value for members and consumers with a floor plan on every listing.

On the surface this could seem like just another partnership with a third party software app. But under the surface, the real innovation is about MLS providers capturing a new digital asset. An asset that could be used as leverage against existing portals and make MLS and brokerages more relevant to consumers again.

And what do I mean by “leverage”? Any contract negotiations come up with anyone regarding MLS data, the MLS can negotiate (new and old agreements) new rates and terms based on the inclusion of floorpans.

Think about it, what if through this partnership an MLS began to capture a majority of floor plans for each new listing. Would that be valuable? I would say, “Hell, yes!” I think consumers would absolutely love listings with floor plans and begin to demand them.

I also absolutely think that the MLS is in the best position to capture this data. I can imagine a listing agent telling their seller to have their 15 year old son download this app and start capturing the floor plan.

One quibble, the name “FlōPlan”. Too cutesy for me. Otherwise I think this is something every MLS provider should embrace and start implementing today.

FBS adds 8,000 new agents to Flexmls system

Maine Listings and Greater El Paso Association of Realtors select FBS and the Flexmls System.

“FBS’s vision and subsequent product strategy have earned them ​+99% MLS-client retention rates during the last decade​. The ​Spark​®​ API​ powers both the Flexmls Mobile platform and the Spring® MLS consumer portal product. Maine Listings licensed the Spring MLS Portal together with the Flexmls System while GEPAR was already a Spring customer. Excited to have all of the pieces come together with FBS, GEPAR CEO Jason Sanchez says, “FBS has an impressive, proven track record of maintaining great partnerships and delivering innovation that positively impacts the MLS, brokers, agents, and consumers. Their Flexmls System was our choice for a reliable, mobile-responsive, future-built MLS system that would deliver value for our members and their customers, especially in conjunction with Spring.”

Looks like their strategy is working. 8,000 REALTORS is a big chunk.

CoreLogic partners with Homes.com to offer MLS providers public-facing websites

CORELOGIC TO OFFER CONSUMER SEARCH SITES POWERED BY HOMES.COM

“Under the agreement, CoreLogic will begin offering the Homes.com Fusion Portal product, a public website platform for multiple listing organizations to CoreLogic clients. Consumer-facing websites follow fair display guidelines, clearly identifying the listing broker and agent on properties for sale.”

Make sense on a lot of levels. First Real Estate Digital (red) left this market awhile back, so there’s no clear leader. Second, Homes.com is one of the best at MLS data aggregation. Third, it gives the CoreLogic’s sales teams a quality product to sell back in to its channel. Plus Homes.com is a good partner. They’ve been powering RE/MAX national website since 2006. Andy Woolley and his team are second to none in integrity and have always been champions of the MLS industry.

A couple of observations. To me this puts CoreLogic in direct competition with BPP and Homesnap. Will MLS providers who signed up for Homesnap also purchase a public facing website? Doesn’t that go against what the BPP “partnership” is all about? Also, the marks the third time (by my count) the industry has used the “fusion” moniker. Please everyone, stop trying to make “fusion” happen. ????

[UPDATE: Turns out Black Knight is Real Estate Digital’s reseller, so they haven’t exited as I first thought. Sorry for the confusion. Plus we know that with FBS acquisition of Solid Earth they also have a dog in this fight.]

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.

CoreLogic is playing chess

Lots of activity in the industry but I’m still thinking about CoreLogic’s acquisition of Clareity. Why? Because I think it was one of the shrewdest deals in a long while. Here’s why.

1. Talent. The talent at Clareity is both wide and deep in industry experience and contacts. In one fell swoop CoreLogic scooped up some of the most talented and well connected people in the industry.

2. That pesky “MLS Customer Satisfaction Survey”. You know the one, where Black Knight and flexMLS were beating them every year? Well its gone baby gone.

3. Speaking of the “MLS Customer Satisfaction Survey”. All that data on their competitors that was aggregated for the survey is now in the hands of Chris Bennett. I’m sure the other MLS vendors will downplay this, but I’m equally sure they would loved it if that data was in their hands.

4. The Clareity Dashboard. Notice that last on my list is the actual product of the company! It’s almost like a bonus. And having a product that is a gateway to all other products in the industry is a nice place to sit.

Other things I’m hearing…

Troy Rech is now head of MLS sales. And Lucie Fortier, is returning back to CoreLogic after a short stint at Remine. Nice moves.

Is Upstream dead?

I heard the news in the air, while flying in to DCA. UpstreamRE had “pivoted”. Instead of brokers entering listings in what UpstreamRE CEO, Alex Lange described as a “Google Drive” in the cloud they could now enter their listing data through their MLS.

I sent out a quick tweet.

2 years and 12 6 million dollars later, the brokers had finally listened to what MLS executives have been saying all along. Use the MLS stupid!

When I landed the texts and calls came in about how Alex Lange presented the news at CMLS’ “Brings it to the Table” event.

Alex was there, along with Dan Elsea. Alex announced they had pivoted. He described that brokers could enter data via the MLS first, and allow UpstreamRE to receive those listings from the MLS.

After all the hubris from UpstreamRE, I can only imagine the mental energy it took to stop the collective eye roll of every attendee in the room. But this party was just getting started.

When Alex was pressed on why the “pivot” he made a statement that a big reason was MLS vendors had been uncooperative. At this point Michael Wurzer, CEO of FBS and a CMLS board member called bullshit. He described FBS’s interaction with the project, which contradicted Alex’s previous statement. To which Alex said it wasn’t really FBS and then proceeded to throw CoreLogic under the bus. Stay classy Alex, stay classy.

And then the shit show continued. Tim Dain stood up and asked Alex if the rumors were true that RPR had sent a team of developers to Portland to get a working demo of the system, and that the demos they were touting at the Midyear meetings were not a “beta” or “up and running” or really even “live” as they were being promoted thus far, but more of a “proof of concept”. To which Alex, handed the microphone to Portland RMLS CEO, Kurt von Wasmuth. To which Kurt confirmed everything Tim suggested. Oy Vey!

Also, is “pivot” even the right word?

I was chatting with Matt Cohen a bit and he thought that their use of the word “pivot” was really a poor choice. Here’s Matt…

Upstream has FINALLY realized that being “Upstream” – creating and implementing the technology / integrations – will take quite a long time. It’s still their goal to be upstream but they need to start getting users and generating revenue. That means, providing the “control” value of syndication next year, which requires MLS data – so, in the short/medium/medium-long term, they will need to accept listing data from MLSs. I don’t see that the long term goal has changed or their long term high-level strategy (no pivot) but in the short term there’s just an intermediate step on the way to their goal. To use examples of real pivots: Odeo was about finding and subscribing podcasts before pivoting into micro-blogging as Twitter. That’s a pivot to an entirely different end-product with no plan to ever return to a podcast business. Confinity was about beaming payments from a PDA before it pivoted into online payments as Paypal. That’s another pivot into an entirely different space. Again, I see Upstream not yet changing their end goal – just adding a step in how to get there

Yup.

Then Saturday happen. The N.A.R. approved an additional $9 million to project Upstream and Dale Stinton, the current CEO of the N.A.R. started pointing fingers and made some inflammatory statements toward MLSs and MLS Vendors. Don’t they realize that if they ever want to accomplish this project they are going to need the cooperation from the the same guys they are throwing under the bus? Good luck with that!

Can’t we all just get along?

I get it. Everything can get heated. Hell, the original title to this blog post was “SHITSTREAM”. So beyond my snarkiness I really do think there might be a positive side to this whole fiasco. When Craig Cheatham announced at the CMLS Conference in Boise that the MLS industry had “10 days” before they would feel the wrath of their brokers it really did wake up the industry.

Since then things have changed a lot. NAR core standards initiatives have contributed to less associations, Bright MLS kicked off a wave of consolidation the industry has never seen before. And data standards are gaining more momentum.

In a sense the brokers are getting what they wanted. They won.

But I think this progress has been stifled by hubris of Upstream, and now the N.A.R.’s stance that the MLS industry is a “cartel” and must be stopped.

We all need to press the reset button, and move forward.

FBS doubles MLS user base

FBS Doubles Real Estate MLS Customer Base to 200,000+ in Four YearsFlexmls System Fuels Company’s Record Growth

Michael Wurzer, who is celebrating his 20th year as CEO at FBS, says, “I’m proud of the growth we’ve experienced welcoming in so many new customers while fostering deeper partnerships with existing customers — many of whom have been with us for more than 20 years.” FBS’s growth is further bolstered by a client attrition rate that’s less than 1 percent — an unprecedented accomplishment for a technology company in any industry. “We’ve set some impressive benchmarks and we’re definitely looking forward to the next twenty years,” Wurzer added. He expressed that FBS’s notable growth is the result of FBS being an employee-owned company focused on serving its customers.

“…less than 1 percent”. That’s beyond impressive. Congrats to all the owners of FBS.

If you missed my conversation with Michael Wurzer on Listing Bits you listen to it on iTunes.

Wurzer reminds us what MLS is really all about

MLS Cooperation Creates Value for All Brokers, Not Just One

“Next, I’ll address the point in the title of this post: “MLS Cooperation Creates Value for All Brokers (and Agents and Consumers), Not Just One.” Distinguishing between the value of cooperation (all brokers) and the needs of one broker (competition) is critical to any analysis regarding the future of the MLS. Typically when folks like Drew and Rob analyze the value proposition of the MLS, they do so from the perspective of a single broker or agent, but that ignores the core value of the MLS, which is the cooperation among the individual brokers and agents.

I could quote everything in this post, you really need to go read it.

I recorded a conversation Mike and I had in New York last week for my Listing Bits podcast I can’t wait to share with you guys, hopefully next week.

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