Chicago-area multiple listing service Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED) has signed a licensing agreement with client management and direct marketing service Listingbook, MRED announced this week.
MRED has more than 40,000 members in Northern Illinois, Southern Wisconsin and Northwest Indiana. Members will gain access to Listingbook services starting in 2011.
"(Listingbook) will allow MRED brokers and agents to register their buyers and sellers and give them access to a … collaborative and personalized Web-based application that searches listings, provides (comparative market analyses), manages open houses, organizes tasks, and provides daily communications and informational updates between the agent and their clients," the announcement said.
"The key aspect of Listingbook our board found most attractive is it empowers the consumer while constantly keeping the agent in control of the transaction process," said Dean Rouso, MRED’s president, in a statement.
MRED also signed a licensing agreement with Cloud CMA today. In early 2011, Cloud CMA will provide the MLS with comparative market analyses, buyer guides and property reports that combine MLS data with information from websites such as Google, Zillow, Education.com, Walk Score, and Yelp.
The aggregation, sharing and distribution of real estate data has been a hot item for the real estate industry as a whole.
Listingbook announced in August that it was taking over property search and valuation website Cyberhomes.com from LPS Real Estate Group Inc.
In a separate deal, Realtor.com operator Move Inc. acquired listings syndicator ListHub in September. Canada-based Point2 Technology Inc., which was acquired by Yardi Systems the same month, also announced five new listing syndication partnerships Monday.
These included the Mason Oceana Manistee Board of Realtors and the West Michigan Lakeshore Association of Realtors (both in Michigan), the Southern Oregon MLS, the Space Coast Association of Realtors (in Florida), and the Grande Prairie & Area Association Of Realtors Inc. (in Alberta, Canada).
Point2 syndicates listings to 53 regional and national partner sites, including Google, Yahoo, Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, househunting.ca, and Cyberhomes. As part of the agreements, the associations and MLSs will also market the Point2 Agent online marketing software suite to their members.
A disagreement over access to Listingbook was a catalyst to the merger of two Miami area Realtor associations in August, Inman News reported.