Redefining MLS: Balancing Data, Technology, and Consumer Engagement

By Modern.tech | May 24, 2024

The PropTech Innovator Network is a group of C-level PropTech executives who meet monthly to discuss the latest technology trends and receive unique insights from influential MLS & Industry leaders. On May 22nd, 2024, the Network welcomed special guest Cameron Paine. Cameron is the CEO of MARIS MLS, serving 14 Associations and spanning 62 counties across Missouri and Illinois. A featured speaker, panelist, futurist, and moderator at industry conferences, Cameron has been recognized by Inman News as one of the "Top 100 Most Influential People in Real Estate," has served on the Board of Directors of the Council of MLSs, and is the founder of the Broker Public Portal, residential real estate's most successful broker/MLS collaboration.

 

Cameron Paine Conversation Highlights

Amidst all the changes happening in the real estate industry, one question has recently received a lot of attention: what do the changes taking place mean for the industry, and what will be their impact on the MLS?

 

This question has made the industry reflect on who is truly the end customer of the MLS. Is it the broker, the agent, or the end consumer? For a lot of MLSs, the answer would be simple, it is the broker. After all, MLSs originally began as a way to facilitate cooperation between real estate brokers, so this answer would make a lot of sense. However, a lot has changed since the shift from paper to the internet happened. 

With consumers now having access to nationwide property listings on various sites online, Cameron believes that the answer to this question is all three. He expressed that he has seen a large shift in the industry towards a focus on the consumer, so, excluding the consumer as a customer of the MLS would be a mistake. Because of this, Cameron suggested that if the MLS is not facilitating the ability for brokers to engage with the consumers, and if it is not thinking about the data and technologies to connect the consumers directly on behalf of the brokers, they are missing a significant part of the industry shift in the past 10 years.

MLSs need to turn their focus back toward the data. With the shift to the internet, MLSs quickly turned from data companies into technology companies, which Cameron expressed are two completely different things. This caused a host of challenges for the MLS that they were not totally prepared for, specifically in the way that the data was formatted and how it would interplay with other technologies. Sites that have been able to solve this problem have allowed the consumer to have easy access to data, and sometimes access to data that may not even be in the broker's MLS. In order to help brokers engage with the consumers, the MLS needs to work towards a data structure that makes it easier for MLSs to work together and that allows them to participate in the national networking of data so that their brokers have the tools and information they need to operate in today's environment.

 

Member News & Updates

Bill Andrews: RentSpree has partnered with HAR.com to bring innovative rental tools to its more than 48,840 members in Houston and surrounding areas.

Stuart Sim: Lofty has a new product scheduled to launch in late May. The product will be a Property Management Solution that helps brokers manage rental opportunities, commercial spaces, and residential properties. 

Alex Gustafson: Oppy rolled out their AI "Operators" feature which can process inbound requests and route them to the specific personnel required to handle a task.

Subrao Shenoy: planetRE launched an AI Video Marketing tool for realtors. 

Vincent Harris: RealEstateAPI.com wrapped up its inaugural AI2 hackathon and the event was a complete success.

Janet Choynowski: Immobel.com is onboarding seven new MLS partners to a variety of their offerings. They also launched the first country site to show all of the C21 Brand listings worldwide in 19 languages on Century21UK.

Drew Knapp: A Greater Town is happy with the adoption of their Facebook app by loan officers associated with national lenders.

Meg Garabrant: Earth Advantage partnered with NorthstarMLS to provide Green Verification Data from the Green Building Registry to subscribers. NorthstarMLS adopted the RESO standard fields for this data and integrated with the GBR API to facilitate the auto-population of Green Verification and Power Production data from GBR into listings.

Zach Gorman: RealReports launched a new feature that uses multimodal AI to instantly analyze and summarize complex property documents like inspection reports, appraisals, and seller disclosures.

James Rogers: RealReports launched with PrimeMLS and SWMLS, making their products available to another 15k members.

 

About the PropTech Innovator Network

Each month, Modern.tech highlights an industry executive who will delve into the intricacies of the organized real estate sector in an exclusive gathering of PropTech Executives. This presents an opportunity for PropTech Innovator Network members to expand their network with high-caliber individuals and acquire insights that are truly unique and unavailable elsewhere. Please request an invitation to join us each month.