Four multiple listing services representing 17,000 members combined have integrated an online scheduling system from real estate showing management company ShowingTime, allowing members to schedule and manage showings at any time of day directly through the MLS from a desktop, smartphone or tablet.
The four MLSs are White Plains, N.Y.-based Hudson-Gateway MLS with 9,000 members; Akron, Ohio-based CRIS MLS with 3,500 members; Dayton MLS, also in Ohio with 3,000 members; and Georgetown, Del.-based Sussex County MLS with 1,500 members.
Through ShowingTime’s system, listing agents can post showing instructions and enter available hours on an interactive calendar to indicate when a listing can be shown, the company said. When a showing agent submits a request, notifications are sent instantly according to the listing agent’s preferences, which can vary depending on whether the listing is occupied or vacant.
“We’re able to add measurable efficiencies to the appointment scheduling process,” said ShowingTime President Michael Lane in a statement.
Members have access to ShowingCart, which allows agents to store and organize their showings in a buyer tour; mapping; and enhanced notifications, which include patented two-way text messaging so agents can confirm, decline or reschedule appointments from their smartphones when they can’t take a call, Lane added.
ShowingTime also offers listing activity reports for sellers and an optional feedback tool system that emails showing agents a Web-based feedback form on the day of the showing.
ShowingTime’s products, which include Web-enabled front desk software ShowingDesk and the ShowingTime Appointment Center, are used in more than 50,000 real estate offices made up of more than 400,000 real estate professionals to schedule more than 2 million showings per month, the Chicago-based company said. ShowingTime counts more than 200 MLSs as customers.
Most recently, the North Carolina-based Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors signed up with the company in January, ending a five-year relationship with ShowingTime rival eShowings. The trade group had been eShowings’ last remaining big client after a string of defections since company founder and CEO Charles Smith’s conviction for failing to pay payroll taxes.
In November, ShowingTime signed up three other MLSs: the Northwest Ohio Real Estate Information Service (NOREIS), the New Jersey MLS, and the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors MLS.