Former bartender, cow-milker, globe-trekker, marketing manager, conultant and more turned real estate coach 2.0. I focus on bringing the best of technology and branding to agents across the country.
Glad that I had the opportunity to discuss this topic with you G and hope that you got a nice glimpse into the confusion.
For the MLS I can see how the tear is apparent. The agents pay the dues, so they would be the customer in a simple fashion. However, the brokers control the data (of the agents), the quality of it, etc. So essentially the brokers SHOULD be the client.
I think that the big confusion here comes back to an even simpler argument about the MLS's providing value to their membership so they can stop the bleeding of members. They feel that if they continue to throw tools and "wow" at the agents that they will continue to find value in them - and essentially - continue to pay their dues. I guess you could even say that if they gave the agents enough tools - that somehow this would guarantee that they wouldn't fall out of the business altogether, and therefore continue to be members of the MLS.
However there's a big player missing in this MLS to Agent relationship... The Broker. Essentially it's the broker's job to do just this - ensure the success of the agent and develop tools for them to do their job properly. With brokers spending dues dollars on things like ratings systems, mobile apps, and considering public facing websites - this all directly competes with the Broker in one way or another.
1) MLS uses dues monies to develop agent based technology - this essentially "levels the playing field" for all agents and brokers out there competing.
2) MLS uses monies to develop agent based tools without working directly WITH the broker to find out what the agents really want/need. This overwhelms the agents with tools and a "paraylsis by analysis" develops on the agent behalf = wasted money.
3) MLS uses monies to develop consumer facing products/technologies. This I believe is the most dangerous one of all. So the MLS opens up the doors to the MLS. This essentially takes the "need" for an agent to access (and most importantly interpret) the information out of the picture. AND... is directly competing with the Broker (who has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into THEIR website) for online leads and essentially taking out the ability for the Broker to recoup any money off of these leads through referral %'s.
So - this isn't even touching the "who's your client" from the broker side, but thought I would sum up my three points we discussed for the public. It's a tough spot to be in - but i believe that the Phoenix MLS has it right - "our job is to organize and securitize the date" -
Teresa, Very well written post and one that I truly enjoyed reading. You did a great job of really documenting the "journey" through real estate tech. Here's my take on "what's next" Agents (and brokers) will realize that the most innovative and cutting-edge thing they can do is to: 1) Use technology to actually price properties effectively. 2) Use technology to come up with super fresh, hyper-local real estate insight 3) use all of the above technologies you have mentioned to PUSH this out to the consumer so that they have a factual and truthful look at the market. That's the future of tech... I think the rest is truly bells and whistles. Just my 2 cents. PS - I KNOW you're already doing this through your blog so you ARE the future! Matthew Dollinger VP of Strategic Development @properties, Chicago IL www.atproperties.com
I think that at least the mapping element is being made a lot harder than you're making it out to be - at least in our area of Chicago. We worked with our website provider Terabitz to incorporate this into the search of our website last year. The most difficult part of it was creating the polyline map through Google for Terabitz to reference. After creating this we were able to "call" it up for consumer's search as they typed it into the box. Given, we have it a little easier as their are "defined" areas for our community and neighborhood areas - but I would recommended discussing this with your vendor if you can - or your IT department if you are doing it internally. Matthew Dollinger Performance Coach @properties, Chicago IL
