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In a partnership desperate to be described by a geology pun, BeachesMLS has hired software company Solid Earth to provide an enhanced, agent-facing interface to its front-end productivity experience, according to a May 30 statement sent to Inman.
More than 40,000 agents in the Broward, Palm Beach and St. Lucie markets of South Florida will now have access to the augmented, data-driven dashboard.
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An Inman Innovator Award winner, Solid Earth’s software rests on top of the existing BeachesMLS solution with a single sign-on serving as a rapid conduit to common content, separate logins, data tools, documents and even personalized member financial reports, news and trends analysis. It also confirms system integrity by ensuring every login is unique to the user.
BeachesMLS is a proven technology-driven association consistently partnering with technology firms to improve the way its members interact with the data that dictates their business. It linked up with hyperlocal content marketing solution Local Logic last year and, upon the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, was one of the nation’s first organizations to organize a “virtual open house week” to encourage market activity.
About its latest software selection, Dionna Hall, CEO at BeachesMLS, said that what helps Solid Earth rise above other vendors is its focus on the needs of individual members as opposed to offering a solution that assumes all members work the same way.
“The ability to have different tiles for different member types and the capacity to dial into specific member specifications ensures a personalized experience tailored to each individual,” said Hall, CEO at BeachesMLS. “We’re excited about our alliance with future innovations that will keep us ahead of the curve. And the single record system, where every user has one ID and login, eliminating multiple logins, vastly improves efficiency and security. Solid Earth is not just a technology provider, they’re a partner in empowering our Realtors to excel.”
The software is scaling quickly, according to the company, taking on more than 170,000 users in less than a year. It expects to onboard another 100,000 “in the coming months,” according to the release.
“Our mission is simple: to create one record for every human with a real estate license in the U.S. — making life easier for real estate professionals and the Associations that support them,” said Rebecca Pearson, vice president of marketing and communications at Solid Earth, in the statement.
In lieu of internal coding expertise or the political wherewithal needed to test members’ tolerance for new fees, MLS executives often turn to software providers to remedy frontend user experience challenges and frustrations.
While many MLS administrative interfaces were suitable for use and reflective of software trends a decade or more ago, the inability to keep pace with the rate of technological change and consumer search trends has become an industry-wide source of contention.
Some associations are quicker than others to tackle members’ ire by identifying software partners like Solid Earth to fill in the ever-widening gaps. Still, consumer-led technology continues to create an immeasurable impact on how real estate functions; thus, without a finger perpetually pressed to the pulse of what’s wanted and asked for by buyers and sellers, MLSs will remain stigmatized, as will those who pay to keep them operating.
