Upstream CEO Alex Lange is freezing himself to be prepared until Upstream launch, slated for 2099. ????
* Sorry Alex, I saw this on Facebook and couldn’t wait till April 1st or CMLS Weekend Update for this one. ????????????????????
#FridayFun
Upstream is buying Facebook ads?
This popped up in my Facebook feed.
Things must be getting pretty hairy if they are buying Facebook ads. Then there’s this…
“As I look back on this journey, I search for what we could have done better. Ironically, our biggest shortcoming is free: communication. We’ve been transparent, hold monthly meetings with our pilot brokers and MLS partners, work with our advisory groups, push blog posts and hold Town Halls. It hasn’t been a shortage of raw data. It’s been a shortage of information that makes it relevant to you. It’s the “whys” and “how does this impact me” that matter.
We promise we will be better. It will be a core competency.
One thing these guys are good at is making promises.
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.
Inman says “Blow Up Upstream”
The Inman Files: Blow up Upstream – Why we should pull the plug on this expensive and risky effort
“But I still think it’s time to pull the plug on this project. I do not want to trivialize the well-intended efforts and opinions of so many hard-working people, but it reminds me of Trump’s Wall — grandiose, impractical and inspired by fear. Yes, there is a problem, but Upstream is a wrong-headed solution and a political hairball to build and gain adoption.”
Tell us what you really think Brad!
Plus some advice for new NAR CEO Bob Goldberg…
“This is new NAR CEO Bob Goldberg’s opportunity to walk the talk and end a glaring example of old top-down pyramid thinking. Upstream is a classic NAR inside job, intended to benefit a small group of its overall membership.
As in most succession plans, Goldberg has about six months to blame it on the “dead pilot” (former NAR CEO Dale Stinton). Then he must “OWN IT” — good or bad. RPR is Stinton’s love child, not yours, Bob.”
In my interview with Bob Goldberg he told me that all of NAR programs were on the table for review.
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.
Are they going to change the name now?
— Greg Robertson (@gregrobertson) May 16, 2017
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.
Listing Bits: The Upstream Pivot with FBS CEO Michael Wurzer
I had a chance to sit down with Mike Wurzer again at NAR Midyear to discuss the recent announcement about Upstream, well, not really being “upstream” anymore. This was recorded before NAR announced the details to their additional funding. More on that in a later blog post.
The first step of problem-solving is to assign blame. Right?
That seems to be part of Upstream’s tactics in explaining their delayed progress at NAR’s May Legislative Meeting in DC. They succeeded in raising the heartrate of today’s guest – by implying that a lack of cooperation from vendors is to blame for the snail’s pace of the project. Upstream also made a big announcement regarding what they term as a pivot, but may be more appropriately called a 180.
Michael Wurzer is the President and CEO of FBS, an employee-owned company committed to exceeding customer expectations. Their signature product, Flexmls, is a standards-driven technology platform connecting real estate professionals to their customers with collaboration tools that deliver timely and accurate information. FBS products serve 185 organizations and 2,000-plus agents in the real estate sector.
Under Wurzer’s leadership for the past 20 years, FBS has worked to constantly evolve and embrace change. They were among the first to build a web-based system, striking a balance between the stability of being an established company and creating a culture of innovation. Today he examines the Upstream pivot in detail, discussing how the Upstream messaging has evolved over time, the pain points the initiative was working to address, and the need to foster collaboration among industry players.
What’s Discussed:
The major players in the Upstream initiative
How the Upstream messaging has evolved over time
The major Upstream pivot announced at NAR’s Legislative Meetings
How the pivot was influenced by feedback from experienced MLS professionals
Greg’s take on the fundamental change in premise of the Upstream initiative
The pain points the Upstream project was working to address
– Ability to sync listings
– Integration with third party products
The buy-in for Upstream from big brands
Upstream’s explanation for its delayed progress
The need to foster collaboration among industry players rather than assigning blame
– All focused on solving broker problems
The CMLS campaign to highlight the value of the MLS
The controversy over RPR’s team of developers
The confusion re: the meaning of a ‘live demo’
The ability to enter a listing from third-party system as a RESO objective
The evolution of technology in the real estate software space
– ‘We’re building the airplane as we’re flying it’
Success stories in MLS system consolidation
The beauty of competition in shaping market dynamics
Zillow’s next steps in light of the Upstream pivot
The need for clarity of communication re: syndication
What the Upstream pivot means for AMP
Wurzer’s prediction of what’s next in real estate tech innovation
Upstream as ‘another option’ rather than a revolution
Resources:
“Upstream Returns to Earth” by Matt Cohen
Connect with Michael Wurzer:
Are brokers tilting at windmills with Upstream?
From Inman News:
“At a private conference this week in Houston, Realogy Franchise Group CEO Alex Perriello questioned Upstream’s value proposition and whether the bifurcation of listing distribution could stifle innovation and add unnecessary costs because not all brokers and MLSs will participate.”
I listened to Mr. Perriello’s comments and concerns and I have to say they were very well thought out. I’m hoping (but doubt) the audio or transcript would be made available. I’ve also heard, from some, that Upstream doesn’t need the support of Franchisors to succeed. Which is true. But when many industry leaders start doubting whether Upstream could be properly executed, you have to take time to pause and reflect. This could get very embarrassing for the industry.
Weekend Update Script from CMLS 2016
Update (9.23.16 at 9:45pm)
I’ve added the images of the slides and a video to this post.
I thought I would post my script from my “weekend update” session at CMLS 2016. Sorry for any typos…
“Hi, I’m Greg Robertson, and here’s your WEEKEND MLS UPDATE
1. Upstream announced today two key hires to help with implementation and operations.
Upstream CEO, Alex Lange in a statement said, “We think with the help of Penn & Teller we really might get this thing to work.”
2. Speaking of Upstream.
I have no real joke here, just the logo.
3. RPR announced today they found the one REALTOR using RPR to create reports.
It turned out to be the 2 year old son of Joe Lightman, a REALTOR in Spokane Washington, who had somehow managed to get at Daddy’s keyboard.
4. In other related AMP news, Marty Frame announced that in tandem with the release of AMP they will also launch a new API that will replace MLS executives.
In a statement, Mr. Frame said “It was actually a pretty easy thing to do, since no MLS execs follow business rules.”
5. This morning it was announced that Adrese Roundtree will replace Daniel Craig as the new James Bond.
It might be the only time in the film’s franchise history that the new Bond will get less ass than the actor that plays him.
6. Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring to be the next CEO of the national association of realtors.
In a statement Mr. Trump said that if he loses the general election this year, he will run to become NAR CEO.
When asked why he would like to take NAR’s top spot, Mr. Trump exclaimed “I thought the salary was fantastic!”
7. Right on the heels of Zillow’s announcement that Diverse Solutions would be sold to MarketLeader, Zillow today announced it would also be selling DotLoop to Market Leader as well.
No money was exchanged, Zillow said in a statement that the only terms of the deal was that Market Leader had to take Austin Alision and his Twitter account with him.
8. Hey did you hear that thanks to the MLS industry the people at Oxford Dictionaries announced earlier this week that they have added a new phrase?
In 2017 “Industry Relations” will be added to the Oxford Dictionary
9. CMLS CEO, Denee Evans, today announced another major partnership. This is right after CMLS announced a deal with NAR.
The Prince of Darkness. That’s right, the devil himself. Because, at this point, what’s the difference?
10. Also, after the stunning success of showing a video of alcoholics in recovery at the CMLS Gala Wednesday night CMLS announced that next year they will be adding videos showing lap band surgery and the dangers of STDs.
This way nobody will want to drink, eat or fuck at a CMLS conference ever again.
11. Hey, did you hear about the minor crisis at the SW Steakhouse at the Wynn last night?
From what I hear the famed steakhouse ran out of Silver Oak! But don’t worry the HAR staff was quickly relocated to Nobu across the street where the evening when on as planned.
12. Matrix today announced that they have changed the name of their new MLS software product.
Formally known as Matrix 360, they have changed the name to Matrix 2060 to correlate with their new release date.
13. Anyone have any idea of what this number means?
This is how many days its been since the realty alliance said the MLS industry had 10 days left.
Thank for everyone being such a good sport. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow!
Also Freddy Sarabia (who also shot a video of my MLS Rap earlier this year) was in the audience and got a lot of my session on video. Enjoy!
Powered by RPR?
Something struck me as not quite right about this recent video from Upstream (at least I think Upstream made it). I think the video is well produced (the worse parts are anytime the Upstream logo makes an appearance). The video is kind of like one of the “Prop XX” videos you see during election times, you can’t really tell who is benefiting if it passes, “Consumers” or “Big Tobacco”!
First I find it super interesting that they are hitting on the “re-keying of data”, as Upstream’s main value proposition. The real reason (as I see it), brokers wanting things to go back to how they were in 1995, is nowhere in the messaging. It’s all about saving “significant costs” and “risk of data being entered incorrectly” now. Which I think is smart on their part.
What I don’t get is the “powered by RPR” moniker. To me RPR is just the vendor on this project. I just can’t figure out who wanted this, RPR or the peeps at Upstream?
Cui bono?
Upstream updates…
Upstream launched a new website.
And a new logo
Just awful. It looks like a sketch a doctor would make right before performing a vasectomy.
