Global MLS to fill several voids

The need to accommodate the international real estate market continues to be a priority for industry providers and the reasons to do so mount nearly every day.

The number of immigrants and foreign investors coming to the United States is increasing, more and more Americans are looking outside the country for a lower cost of living, and wealthy citizens with disposable income still dream of an exotic getaway abroad.

According to the National Association of Realtors, approximately 178,000 of its members closed a transaction with a foreign buyer in 2008, including approximately 61 percent of all Florida Realtors. About the same number of agents had a deal fall through with a foreign buyer due to price, immigration laws, or higher-than-expected property taxes and home insurance costs.

Janet Case, former chief executive of the two largest Realtor associations in California's Silicon Valley, saw the need for an international multiple listing service that would address the needs of agents and consumers. The spark was her purchase of an old farm house in France four years ago.

"I found it to be a very difficult process with no MLS or shared information between agencies," said Case, who holds an undergraduate degree in economics and an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business. "There were serious market inefficiencies and no system that combined inventory and networking for agents."

NAR, the largest trade association in the United States, is a member of the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA), which has a business-to-consumer Web site but no common place where agents could share listings, interests and forms in different languages.

Believing she could add a service that would benefit professionals and consumers, Case founded Palo Alto, Calif.-based Proxio, a borderless real estate market that gives agents the ability to market themselves and their listings globally. It launched in Europe in 2007 and in the U.S. last year.

It now has a presence in 65 countries, with an inventory of approximately 110,000 listings worth more than $55 billion. Its services are in 11 different languages to support its network of more than 4,400 participating agencies and 24,000 agents.

The company makes its money by charging for subscriptions, typically to individual agents, and wholesale to groups such as MLSs, Realtor associations and media companies.

"I think the concept will truly benefit consumers, especially on the sell side," Case said. "There will be a lot more exposure of a specific property listed for sale to qualified agents all over the world who have the credentials, buyer network and performance to get it sold." ...CONTINUED

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