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.
“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.
“With an AgentSquared IDX website powered by the Spark API, Flexmls users can register their domain and have a beautiful, live IDX website in minutes that’s modern, branded, mobile-responsive and integrated with their Flexmls contacts (so they don’t have to manually enter lead information from their AgentSquared website into their Flexmls CRM). Because the listing data is coming from a real time API, any changes to the listing record are reflected instantly on AgentSquared websites so consumers have the freshest and most comprehensive listing information possible.”
I’ve been meaning to write about Troy and his company, AgentSquared, for sometime now. It’s really the first API only solution I’ve been impressed with. You have to see it to understand that when they say an “instant IDX website” it really is that simple, and instant. The brilliant part about this solution is the way AgentSquared leverage the API data for setup. I don’t think that has been talked about much.
The only caveat is that things are much quicker and simpler with FBS’ Spark API platform which has agent info in their API and handles both the data and permissioning. That doesn’t mean that an MLS provider with an API could grant that permission for the product as part of the solution.
Many of you are already in Orlando, personally I don’t arrive till tomorrow afternoon. Which means I’ve got a jammed pack weekend! Here are some of things that we have going on.
W+R Studios booth!
Stop by and see our newly redesigned booth. Our booth number is 1185. No ping pong this year, but sit in on a demo and get a free t-shirt!
MLS Association Executives Session
November 4, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. (that’s this Friday)
Hyatt Regency, Windermere Ballroom Z
Brian Donnellan has asked me to moderate a panel with Mike Wurzer, Matt Cohen and Chad Curry on the future of real estate technology. We are going to geek out on future tech and what it means for real estate. (I’m just glad not to talk about Upstream)
AMP Presentation
November 5, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. (Saturday) Katie and I will be demoing our Cloud Agent Suite (Cloud CMA, Cloud Streams and Cloud MLX) and highlighting recent integrations we’ve done with the AMP API.
ListHub Party
November 5, 2016 5PM-9PM
ICEBAR – 8967 International Drive, Orlando FL W+R Studios is co-sponsoring the ListHub party. We will have a cool photo booth set up for attendees.
Corelogic Party
November 5, 2016 8PM-11PM
B.B. King’s Blues Club – 9101 International Dr. #2230, Orlando, FL W+R Studios is also co-sponsoring the Corelogic party as well (what can I say, we like to party!)
Come by our Suite!
Katie and I will be in our Suite at the Rosen Centre giving private demos. We have a few slots open so reach out to Katie if you like to talk about adding the Cloud Agent Suite to your MLS or brokerage.
Other than that I’ll most likely be at the lobby bar (but you already knew that.)
Matt Cohen wrote an epic post recapping NAR 2016 Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo Report. It’s a must read for anyone who didn’t attend the show or was there but stuck in a lot of meetings. I’m bummed I missed the FBS Party which sounded perfect (live music, good food and great conversation).
Of course Dan and I are really stoked that Cloud MLX was named “Best In Show” in Clareity’s post. Here’s a taste…
“As with their other products, the focus is on striking the right balance between ease of use and functionality. This product looks anything BUT the same-old MLS technology.”
We are super proud of our team at W+R Studios for the hard work they put in to getting Cloud MLX launched.
Please get in touch with Katie if you want to schedule a demo.
“This growth doesn’t include a variety of large MLS data shares we’ve implemented. If we include those, the current coverage expands to over 250,000 agents. Regardless, I’m pretty sure this means the Spark API currently is one of if not the largest MLS aggregation available through a single API.
Perhaps more importantly, because we’ve sustained this growth organically by adding new Flexmls customers, the Spark API not only includes listing information for all these customers but also what I think is the more valuable data for brokers and agents, namely saved searches, contacts, and portal activity data (e.g., favorites, messages, etc.). What this means is that, in addition to being the biggest, the Spark API also is the deepest MLS data repository and the only API that truly allows developers and MLS providers to have a front-end of choice.
Lastly, an important distinction between Spark and several of the APIs being touted in the media these days is that the Spark API is live right now and growing actual usage every day. I like the look of hockey sticks.
Mike Wurzer, CEO of FBSMike Wurzer must be rolling his eyes every time he reads Inman News lately. Its 2016 and the industry has finally caught up with him and his company, FBS. Back in May of 2012 (yes you read that correctly, 4 years ago) FBS announced its Spark Platform, which includes the Spark API. Which gave software developers two great things, an easy way to get MLS data and permission to sell their products to any of their flexmls customers. The Spark API allowed us to get Cloud CMA up in running in “long tail” MLS markets that we may not have served due to size or some other challenge.
Now, along with AMP, two others have joined the fray. Zillow and CoreLogic. Zillow with its Retsly Connect initiative and CoreLogic with its Trestle initiative. So since a big component of these initiatives is to target software developers to make cool stuff, and I happen to run a software company that makes cool stuff I thought I would give a quick run down of the pros and cons of each.
AMP PROS:
Owned by NAR. RPRs effort to provide a back-end database to MLS providers has announced they have MLS providers representing over 200,000 agents interested in AMP. That’s a lot of agents, and as a software company I like the size of that market. CONS:
Owned by NAR. Nobody that I know have has seen any API documentation, and it still isn’t clear how the revenue model would work for 3rd party software developers integrating with AMP.
Zillow’s Retsly Connect PROS:
Owned by Zillow. Sexy technology, we used their Public Records API in Cloud Streams and were impressed. Retsly Connect looks equally cool, and lots of bells and whistles I think MLS providers would like (which is why I think Bob Hale signed up). CONS:
Owned by Zillow. They have a chicken and egg problem. They currently have only 6 MLS providers signed up (and I think a third of them are in Canada). So, they are going to need to get some sort of traction for developers to write for the platform, but also need more coverage to entice developers to do so.
CoreLogic’s Trestle PROS:
Big company. Knows data. They have over 300 MLS databases. Some of them the largest MLS providers in the country. That a HUGE market potential. If the Spark API provided the “long tail” MLS markets, CoreLogic would provide the freaking Elephant. CONS:
Big company. Not launching until Q3 of this year. No API info, no revenue model announced.
For the record our plans at W+R Studios is to be platform agnostic and make our products work on any platform our customers want. But, I still want to give
a couple words of advice:
1. Try and stay away from an App Store model. I’ve been a big proponent of an “Agent App Store” in the past but it has been very brutal to get agents to change their purchasing behavior. Maybe in the post “front end of choice” world things might change, but that’s a big if.
2. Your initiative must include data access rights AND permission to sell. Make it an opt-out for MLS providers. One without the other will not scale. If I build something fast and it takes 6 months to get approval from your MLS committee to sell it, then these initiatives are essentially worthless.
In the end competition is a good thing. I think the next few years are going to be very exciting times for real estate technology. Sometimes all it takes is just a spark.
“What this means is that AMP isn’t something to be worried about, rather each MLS will be able to consider choosing AMP as their MLS vendor on the same basis it would consider choosing FBS, Black Knight, Corelogic, or any other vendor. That’s an opportunity, not something to fear.
Rational and thoughtful (and a bit fun) post from Mr. Wurzer. Nice to see him writing again.
A few things I wanted to highlight about last week’s Clareity MLS Executive Workshop in Scottsdale, AZ last week. First off Gregg and his entire team did an amazing job. The content was fantastic and they managed to keep the conversation above the salacious syndication war between MOVE and Zillow Group narrative that has been floating around.
But, one of my takeaways about the Zillow Vs MOVE thing was how it effects other players, notably Homes.com. Seems like an opportunity for these guys. When I asked Andy Woolley, now Industry Relations at Homes.com. Andy was quick to point out that while they don’t, and won’t possibly ever have as much traffic as ZTR, they were focusing a lot on “quality”. Meaning the “quality” of leads coming through Homes.com. I was sent a screen shot of a ListHub report (from the Houston market) that seemed to prove that out.
Yes, I know their total detail views is much smaller, but their lead ratio is crazy good.
HAR .08%
Zillow .06%
realtor.com .03%
Trulia .019% Homes.com .97%
The other thing was the direct feed count. Check out this slide.
Homes.com has 400 direct feeds from MLS providers. 400 freaking hundred.Zillow Group isn’t even close. Great lead ratio, huge direct feed count, you gotta wonder what that is worth to someone.
On another topic, was the release of the MLS Satisfaction survey. Here’s the results of the “End User Satisfaction.”
Looking at MLS Vendors with more than 2 customers it appears that Black Knight and FBS still dominate the top two spots above their competition. Kudos to both of them.
Thanks again to Gregg, Matt and the rest of the Clareity team. We are always thrilled to participate. And I hope you enjoyed the Cloud Streams t-shirts. They look great!
“The goal of Stopgap Agreement is to give MLSs a reasonable amount of time to make reasoned decisions on their timeline; not Zillow Group’s or Move’s timeline. The agreement would be between the MLS and Zillow Group to keep data flowing in an interim period. Each MLS in consultation with their attorney can decide whether it makes sense for them. It’s still an individual choice”
I love this idea. Does anyone have any update on the progress of this?
