Nancy Edmond, CIPS, CRS, GRI, LTG, is the 2002 president of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, but her high rank in the organization doesn’t help her get into her MLS system any faster than any other agent. In her area, agents attempting to access MLS data do so against a litany of delays including system outages and connectivity problems, outdated software, and an MLS system which is inadequate for the number of users, say those close to the situation.

The Greater Boston Association of Realtors use the MLS services of a privately-owned MLS which is owned by brokers called MLSPIN. MLSPIN is served by a legacy system operated by FNIS.

In an e-mail addressed to Carolyn Shodat, former president of the board of directors of MLSPIN, Edmond outlined recent problems she had accessing the MLS.

"Now for my problem, MLS! I cannot imagine what the problems are at MLS to have it down so much of the time. It is really costing a lot of time and money to those of us trying to use it."

"Needless to say, I am trying unsuccessfully to get in and can't."

"Here is a short list of some of my week's attempts which is truly unacceptable to my business:"

• Sunday, June 30

  Have new listing, trying to enter it in the MLS, system was down until late morning

• Tuesday, July 2

  Having OH (open house), system down again, offices not able to access OH listings, only 1 office attended as they had run the OH list Monday. This is a waste of my time as I must do the OH again. Because of holiday, it will not be until the following week

• Wednesday, July 3

  Trying to download listings for client and do 2 CMAs, I was able to download list of properties (seems painfully slow, nearly 5 p.m., called MLS office, told all is fine), tried to download photos and kept timing out. Hours later still no photos

• Thursday, July 4

  Still trying to do CMAs and download photos, the system was down again, Holiday - no one available! What next!

  Anyway, Carolyn, I figure you must know who to call on a holiday in case someone can fix it.

  Thanks, Nancy

Tim Harrison, executive vice president of FNIS' MLS Systems Division, says, “The only outage I am aware of is when they (MLSPIN) lost power in their facility and the system was down a half a day. It could be local office problem, the ISP, or the bandwidth carrier. If AT&T had an outage, the system could be down, but never for a week at a time."

”I was working out of my home that week so it wasn't a problem with my office network,” says Edmond. “The MLS system was down as one day I could not even get the MLS homepage for a few hours, the other days, I could get the MLS homepage but could not enter REXplorer or MLS Windows. I could access all other online programs, mail, etc., at all times when I could not access MLS. I was not the only one who could not get in as evidenced by my phoning others to see if it was down and by the inability of other offices to bring up the open house lists, etc.”

”We have three ways of going into the system and it is very often down,” continues Edmond. “I’ve had firsthand experience, my office, and many other offices have, too. We are down a lot - we are bounced offline, the download is ridiculous, and we are shut down from midnight to 6:00 a.m. at least.”

Sherry Marquis, owner of Marquis GMAC Real Estate, a PIN shareholder and former technology chair for MLSPIN, says, "The product wasn’t what was promised, and it had a lot of bugs that needed to be fixed and they fixed them, and now it works very well,” says Marquis. “But PC Access is old DOS-based program."

FNIS' fix to the problem is to sell MLSPIN new software, Paragon, as reported earlier by Realty Times.

"We are moving to a Web-based program that the board is testing and I understand it will go out to agents after the board tests it," says Marquis. "PC Access will be supported by FNIS for another year, and Paragon will run parallel for a year, so we won't require a major conversion. Paragon does not replace anything - it is a new software to work on our system."

Do the agents have to buy it? “Every agent will get it,” says Marquis. “It will run on a parallel server. It is another way to access the information. We have REXplorer as our software program, and it’s not the best Web-based program. Paragon is an alternate solution.”

According to Harrison, Paragon is leased to the MLSs which choose it. “They sign lease agreements, and we host the software. The contracts go 36 to 60 months. The agents pay through the MLSs via their memberships.

Agents can also purchase a product called Paragon Desktop, an offline product. "We will work out site licenses to distribute copies for parallel servers and to put on laptops,” says Harrison.

FNIS’ contract with MLSPIN runs out in September, says Edmond. “When our large boards meet, this is a big topic, overall MLS information and lockboxes. It is a situation where we have a lot of complaints. It’s time to move everybody to the Internet.”

Published: July 19, 2002

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