North Texas Real Estate Information Systems, Inc. (NTREIS) is the sixth-largest MLS in the nation, serving over 16,000 subscribers in North Texas, primarily in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The MLS is about to dump its current MLS vendors and go with a new integrated system that CEO Jim Harrison and the NTREIS MLS committee has negotiated for directly.

One of the first to get frustrated by outdated technologies that were foisted on the real estate industry by publicly held vendors who did little to make their products Internet-based or user-friendly, and who bundled in additional vendors at extra expense to the MLS and its members, Harrison has vowed that there is a better way.

"This time we contracted directly with the vendors," says Harrison. "In a conventional legacy platform, a vendor like FNIS will cut the deals for all the applications that an MLS might want as their service platform. We have contracted directly with the service providers. We don't have anyone in between and we deal with them, and we aren't paying a mark-up. If we change an MLS vendor, we aren't going to lose all those other products."

NTREIS is announcing what it calls a state-of-the-art MLS system with the signing of multi-million dollar contracts with leading technology vendors to create an advanced MLS network which will include such innovations as incorporating transaction management solutions and state contract forms directly into its integrated MLS system.

The new "Multi-Functional MLS Network" is a platform that includes:

• MarketLinx's TEMPO MLS System, a complete open system and Internet solution offering a broad range of features and providing the dedicated tools needed by an MLS in today's market.
• First American's Transaction Management solution which enables web-based document management, electronic forms and document tracking. NTREIS’ new tool, which will integrate MLS listing data, couples communications and document management with workflow capabilities. Additional features include online order entry, web-based task checklists, status tracking, and online document delivery. The signing of First American has not yet been announced.
• Stewart's Landata Propertyinfo.com, a robust ASP property tax system, which enables research on real estate parcels, including ownership, assessed value, property characteristics and property identification information. With NTREIS’ new tax tool, users can customize queries, as well as print and download lists for marketing purposes.
• Hand e Corp’s Pocket Real Estate for Palm OS and for Pocket PC are distributed database applications for handheld computers that provide access to MLS anytime, anywhere. Pocket Real Estate is a software application for handheld computers that stores thousands of properties and can be quickly updated.
• Wyldfyre Technologies’ Listing Manager Pro service lets REALTORS® manage and search all their MLS data either online, or offline with a custom database. LMP allows users to design and create their own marketing presentations, and to automatically update listings with a client's specific search criteria. LMP allows agents to create custom CMA reports and email the listing search results with photos of the properties.

Selections were made by committee, and with help from Clareity Consulting which did an online survey for NTREIS members which 15 percent completed. The survey showed that reliable tax data, a robust, online Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) publisher, neighborhood market trends, and transaction management features were among the top priorities for NTREIS members.

This is a huge change that Harrison says NTREIS has been preparing for years. "Most of our members have put up with Maestro for so long, they don't know how bad they have it. What we want is for the Realtors in Dallas-Fort Worth to have an advanced technology platform. We are shutting off Maestro November 4th, and we will still run Rapattoni, but it will stop in September of 2004."

DFW Realtors had a terrible conversion to Maestro in 1999, when Realtors accused the company of too many bugs and not enough phone lines and support. The company designated one trainer for over 14,000 licensees. The company countered that Dallas agents weren't entering listings correctly.

Harrison says he wasn't in Dallas then, but he watched the melee from the East Coast before joining NTREIS. He plans to bypass similar problems by insisting that all agents are trained before they get a password to the new system.

"NTREIS has built a conversion training plan with classes in 27 locations over three months," says Harrison. "We have a service area that is over 20,000 square miles, so we need to have classes in some remote areas, and we are doing quite a few courses in the inner city."

What he's most proud of is the conversion won't cost members a thing. "We are spending $1.5 million to implement this new system," he says, "but we have set money aside for this year, so it is already paid for."

Published: May 12, 2003

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