If you thought the war between Homestore and HomeAdvisor was over, think again.There's more than one way to win a listings war, and HomeAdvisor just may just done so without firing a single shot. Or, writing a check...yet.

With all the talk of listings, an important piece of the transaction module may have been overlooked - listings. I don't mean listings for sale to aggregator portals. I mean the origination and management of listings for the use and distribution by cooperating brokers at the MLS level. This takes broker reciprocity, the cooperative sharing of listings on broker-controlled public access web sites, to a whole new level, if the cooperation takes place in a Web-based transaction management environment.

While transaction management service providers are busy trying to sell their platforms to brokers one by one, setting them up with thousands of dollars worth of proprietary server equipment, parallel MLS systems, and other high-cost solutions to business and listings management, a company no one has heard from in a long time has just come out of nowhere with an all-purpose real estate solution that originates not with the broker, but with the MLS cooperative. Meet 35-year-old Interealty, one of the top MLS system providers in the U.S.

Here's Interealty's plan to take over the world, and it's ingeniously simple. If the MLS is the cooperative agency that the brokers trust and need to business, then who is in a better position to integrate MLS listing data into a transaction management platform for brokers and their agents? MLS organizations tend to be third-party service providers but none are technology companies. They still need the technology services of an MLS information management specialist.

Currently, the two leading players are Vistainfo, Inc, which "seats" about 340,000 real estate agents. The other is Interealty, which seats about 270,000. Other players are parallel and web-based system providers such as HomeSeekers, which seats about 100,000 agents.

Pay particular attention to that word - seats - because that will be the new buzzword for 2001.

Interealty is already the MLS data management system and software provider for one out of three agents in the U.S. It had all the pieces in place except for one - customer and broker back-end management software. Enter new strategic partner HomeAdvisor. The missing piece for HomeAdvisor is the shot to get on one-third of online agents' desktops. It's a partnership made in heaven.

With this one strategic agreement, HomeAdvisor has effectively sprinted ahead of Homestore's formidable sales team as well as beaten Homestore's application-heavy eRealtor to the market. With Interealty as its Trojan Horse, HomeAdvisor has placed its broker and agent-oriented client and business management software on the MLS service provider's new MLXChange software platform, a blend of core-level MLS data and client, office and transaction management at the broker level. MLXChange will replace all of Interealty's current products and is ready for roll-out. It is being beta-tested by several of Interealty's broker clients following the N.A.R. convention in early November. The system is already present on Interealty's desktop application and will be available as an upgrade to current system users. No more multiple software choices for beginner and intermediate agents. This will be a one system suits all. And it was sold in without a single sales call. Brilliant.

That means that not only is Interealty at the right place at the right time. It also means that the listings war has just moved from who can control the MLSs and their listings with lucrative agreements, to who can control the MLS information management systems. While Homestore and HomeAdvisor battle it out for consumer dominance, HomeAdvisor, courtesy of Trojan Horse Interealty, just took the lead in the b-to-b category. Homestore's equivalent to Interealty, Wyldfyre, is a technology company but it isn't a true peer. While it "seats" 100,000 plus agents in software, it is not an MLS systems provider. Interealty, thanks to its acquisition of GTE Enterprise Solutions, is not only a systems provider, it is also a Web-based Internet solutions provider. It is its own parallel system.

Why is this a big deal? Because the MLS listing is the key. Nothing happens until something is negotiated and sold. Integrating the listing from the MLS level, tax information and all, into a Web-based transaction platform in which brokers can communicate with each other in a peer-to-peer file-sharing environment is going to be the application to beat in the coming year.

You heard it here first. Watch for some interesting developements. Companies with MLS service contracts will suddenly be worth their weight in gold. Strange bedfellows will suddenly make sense. Announcements will shortly be made concerning mergers or acquisitions involving some companies that many thought were down for the count. And, wait until you read what is about to happen in MLS information management. Find out how Interealty has just changed the power paradigm with their killer app in tomorrow's edition of Agent News.

Published: October 30, 2000

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.