Interealty, provider of legacy hardware and software systems for one out of three of the 350 largest MLS organizations in the country, has been in business since 1935, but it is about to shuck tradition and go for the Internet gold.

Who's Interealty? Most agents and brokers have never heard of them, but one out of three get MLS listings data from one of their MLS legacy or Web-based systems. Agents would no more know the name of the company who provides their MLS information management technology than they know who makes the servers for the local phone company. But that is all about to change as Interealty parlays its core MLS information integration software into a cooperative transaction platform for brokers called MLXchange.

What Interealty is planning will blind-side the transaction management application service providers, who may have never seen it coming. With MLS information management as their core business, why would a provider want to get into transaction and business management at the broker level?

But Interealty knows what every ASP knows. All broker and agent activity begins and ends with the listing and that the MLS cooperative is the ideal place to enable transaction data.

The bad news

It's easy to discount the importance of the legacy MLS system providers as ASP competitors, until you look at what they are up against. They don't make money installing the systems. Profits are thin, and maintenance costs are escalating. With contracts of approximately five years in length, renewals are far from a slam dunk as faster, sleeker Web-based systems have emerged. The longer the contract goes on, the higher the maintenance costs become for the information system service provider as they are forced to maintain hundreds of phone lines and equipment such as legacy servers and software to run on the system. They face extreme competition from the more nimble Web-based competitors who piggy-back on the systems with parallel servers, hoping to wrest lucrative MLS contracts away from the incumbent when contracts come up for renewal. MLS organizations are consolidating to about 700 nationwide, with only about 350 serving 300 agents or more. HomeSeekers, for example, already offers parallel Web-based MLS information services to over 100,000 agents and is poised to take over important contracts such as SOCAL, Southern California MLS. If HomeSeekers is successful in every case, Interealty alone could lose over one-third the number of seats the company currently serves.

Under this kind of pressure, both Interealty and its key competitor, VISTAinfo, have announced that all future MLS installations will be Web-based and that older systems will be upgraded to Web-based systems until the older systems no longer exist. But from there, their business models diverge. (See the Realty Times exclusive interview with VISTAinfo's COO Howard Latham in tomorrow's edition of Agent News) Interealty has chosen to integrate business and transaction management services into its MLXchange platform so that brokers and agents will have such services already available at the MLS level.

The good news

A division of GEAC, Canada's largest software company, Interealty is profitable, according to an insider, and hardly crying the MLS blues. But it is aware of a tremendous opportunity to capture more business from brokers and new MLS customers.

The popularity of the Internet, its facilitation with high-speed and wireless access and open information standards such as XML and RETS technologies have all contributed to the new MLS system - a Web-based platform in which any agent can reach the MLS data from any modem.

And that has opened up new possibilities for the MLS information system providers to bring new services to Realtors, including consultation and technological services to facilitate transactions and enable brokers to have the MLS database of listings on their personal Web sites. And that is why Interealty is introducing the killer application that all brokers will want - a client/business/transaction platform using real-time data direct from the MLS.

With brokers demanding more of a role in MLS management, it is inevitable that they would want to use the MLS listings data cooperative in ways to benefit their personal businesses. Broker reciprocity offers the opportunity to do just that, share listings with competing brokers in a public Web site, but transactions have more than one side. What if co-brokers could communicate in the same environment, opening some pages of their transaction to the other side while keeping private the back end management of their own listings and other office functions? That brings the Internet ideal of one-time-entry data to a new reality as information auto-populates contracts, loans and other documents in real time. The first evolution is to get the brokers on the platform - a peer-to-peer model is down the road, but foreseeable in the very near future. Think MLS Napster without the lawsuits.

Enter MLXchange

Interealty plans to transcend the inventory system business model and offer MLXchange as an upgrade to its current 280,000 users of MLS data. The way the product will work is that it will combine MLS core data management with a platform that can be sold to the individual broker as an upgrade from the MLS organization. The system will have a complete back-end office and agent business management system integrated with a front-end client and transaction management system which is used by the broker's agents. This eliminates the need to hire third-party companies to provide office and listings management services, unless the brokers and agents want to use other providers.

According to Jim Secord, director of business development for Interealty, brokers are looking for differentiation. "We won't get in-between brokers and their providers," says Secord. "but they use the MLS daily. The MLS will be the window to the agent."

To mention a few of the platform's features, MLXchange begins its MLS integration by blending the MLS data with client and business management giving agents the ability to manage daily tasks beginning with their leads. The program will track from which Web sites the agent's leads come from when their listings are viewed on MLS or agent partner sites such as HomeAdvisor. The agent's splash page also includes the "hot sheet," and a task list for today. From the desktop, the agent can access their client list, listings from the MLS or contact other offices within the MLS for quick access to other members. ( Click Here ) New clients flow into the contact manager from the email contact, and the agent can divide their contacts into new clients, closed buyers, etc. for marketing purposes.

The listings are a work of art as the information is automatically populated between the MLS and the brokerage office and agent. Any changes in the listing such as price reductions are made one time to serve all systems.

The system also allows for a template of suppliers to be added by the MLS, the listing broker, or the agent in charge of the transaction. For the broker, the system can be branded and shared with a transaction partner such as a lender or title company, and the system will set up an e-mail template for the guest provider for every transaction.

Brokers will appreciate the increased productivity of having follow-up on leads. While the events manager populates agent desktops with leads from listings, if the leads aren't followed up, the system will notify the broker who can choose to send a reminder e-mail, or assign the lead to another agent. No more full mailboxes with frustrated callers being unable to reach busy agents.

One-size-fits-all technology solution

Currently, Interealty offers several MLS services, including Net.MLS, MLSPassport and System 4, the Web-based system it acquired when the company merged with GTE Enterprise Solutions. "Our goal is to integrate them into one comprehensive real estate listing engine, the MLXchange Transaction Server, and add to it all the additional services needed to completely manage the real estate transaction. MLXchange will manage everything from the point of first contact through to closing and beyond, all from one central vertical real estate portal called PropertyPlace," explains Secord. PropertyPlace, according to the site, is a business-to-business portal that provides agents with a convenient, comprehensive one-stop source for the information and resources they need to maintain profitable relationships with customers.

MLXchange will provide the technology solutions that MLS organizations and brokers want without threatening their livelihood because the product goes through the MLS, which is broker-controlled, offers Secord. "They don't know who their friends are anymore. There are so many different systems and they just want to be able to serve their members at the local level, with local platforms."

Interealty is wholly-owned, but it is being positioned as a spin-off, says an insider. The company is looking to make acquisitions and may be considering strategic or equity mergers with other MLS information system providers. While Secord would not comment, acquisitions seem the obvious course, from neutralizing competition to snapping up inventive new modules that can fit into the platform. According to Secord, the open standards platform can accommodate favorite software that may already be in use by agents, such as productivity software like Top Producer. "We aren't into making agents give up what they like, but we have a complete solution for them if they don't have other providers," says Secord.

Pricing for MLXchange has yet to be determined, but it will be available as an upgrade on existing systems to all seated brokers and agents.

Published: October 31, 2000

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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. For more articles by Blanche, click here.