Last year was a banner year in terms of multiple listing services (MLSs) upgrading their systems to the Internet as they kept pace with increasing demands from both realtors and consumers seeking real estate information online, according to Interealty.com. As a result of the surge for real estate information online, in just one year Interealty realized a nearly six-fold increase - from just five clients in 1999, to 29 MLSs in 2000 - becoming wired to the Internet.

Interealty, which provides real estate technology tools to more than one-in-three real estate professionals nationwide, was a beneficiary of the millions of consumers and hundreds of thousands of real estate agents now using the Web, as MLSs turned to technology providers to upgrade systems to faster, Internet-based platforms.

"Last year was a record for Interealty in terms of MLSs upgrading their systems as we successfully completed 24 Internet-based installations for our MLS clients - the most ever for our company," said Michael Harris, president and chief executive officer of Interealty. "As a result of a key acquisition and the development of our new flagship product, MLXchange, we are well positioned to help our MLS clients take full advantage of the benefits the Internet brings to the online real estate world."

Among the numerous milestones Interealty reached in 2000, include:

• The acquisition of GTE Enterprise Initiative's Real Estate Unit and the total integration of the two companies was completed including data centers and a single Fort Lauderdale call center

• Demonstrating MLXchange at the National Association of Realtors conference in November. MLXchange is the industry's first Web-based solution for real estate professionals that combines listing and property data with additional services like lead capture, marketing and customer relationship management. MLXchange is the only product to combine award-winning MLS tools and proven client and transaction management technology
• Entered into a strategic agreement with HomeAdvisor Technologies, in which Interealty has integrated HomeAdvisor's lead capture, client and transaction management technologies into MLXchange
• More than 80 percent of the 270,000 Realtors using Interealty's MLS systems, have access to the Internet using their dial-up Internet Service Provider, cable modem or DSL line.

Published: January 25, 2001

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