About a quarter of Florida’s population is Hispanic and about a fifth speak Spanish at home — a figure adding up to about 4 million people in the one-time Spanish colony.
By the end of this month, tens of thousands of real estate agents, brokers and appraisers hoping to better serve that population will have the option to access their multiple listing service in Spanish.
CoreLogic, the largest MLS system vendor nationwide, and My Florida Regional MLS — the largest MLS in the state and one of the largest MLSs in the country with 57,000 members — will soon debut the first Spanish version of Matrix, CoreLogic’s most popular MLS system, in the U.S. The Spanish version should be launched by the end of August 2018, according to the organizations.
Screen shot of the MFRMLS Matrix consumer portal in Spanish
The project was driven by an increased need in the marketplace for MLSs to support bilingual agents and their clients, Altamonte Springs, Florida-based MFRMLS said in a press release. The MLS covers 17 central and southwest Florida counties.
Merri Jo Cowen
“We are constantly looking for ways to create new opportunities for our brokers and agents to serve their customers,” said Merri Jo Cowen, CEO of MFRMLS, in a statement. “Offering Matrix in Spanish provides the opportunity for our members to enhance the buying experience for their Spanish-speaking customers.”
According to MFRMLS, some of the benefits of the translated platform include the ability to:
- Toggle between English and Spanish with the click of a button
- Input and print listings in Spanish
- Add public remarks to a listing in Spanish
- Auto-translate for favorite features such as Matrix Navigation, Reports, Customer Portal, CMA Wizard, Saved Searches and Auto-Emails
Screen shot of the MFRMLS homepage on Matrix in Spanish
MFRMLS stressed that the new version of Matrix was a team effort. The MLS worked closely with five other MLSs to create a Spanish version of the Real Estate Standards Organization’s Data Dictionary, which is a standardized set of data terms for the most common descriptions of property characteristics used in the industry.
The Spanish version is “in the final stages” of approval by RESO’s Data Dictionary Workgroup, MFRMLS said.
The MLS also worked with a consulting group from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) to translate the user interface, reports and forms inside of Matrix. And CoreLogic provided the technology.
Chris Bennett
“CoreLogic is a strong believer in developing technology that has the flexibility to support the needs of our clients,” said Chris Bennett, CoreLogic’s executive leader of real estate solutions, in a statement.
“We know that clear communication is critical in every real estate transaction. By supporting our clients who wish to offer other languages that are representative of the consumer and agent demand, CoreLogic continues to deliver value through Matrix in an ever-growing number of ways.”
The structure of Matrix, which has more than 800,000 end users in North America, allows the software to be translated into any language, according to real estate consultant Victor Lund, speaking on behalf of CoreLogic.
Matrix in Spanish will be available to any MLS that chooses to have Spanish as a premium option, he said. When asked whether other MLSs had plans to deploy Matrix in Spanish, Lund declined to comment, citing confidentiality.
In a press release, CoreLogic said it had deployed Matrix “natively with Spanish, French, Chinese and Japanese translation options in various national and international markets.”
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