Advanced Access is a family-owned business that sells Websites and other Internet marketing tools to Realtors. Since it began operations in 1998, the company has grown from 600 Website customers to over 24,000, says CEO Kristina Morrison.

And she believes there is a future in selling even more Websites through real estate associations.

"The associations want some different partnerships and different cooperative ventures (revenue-sharing)," suggests Morrison. "We are interested in contacting these places to set up educational seminars to market within state and local associations, so that agents will want to get a personal Website and market themselves on the Internet."

The concept seems contradictory - an Internet marketing company using revenue-sharing agreements to get in front of a constituency, but Morrison says it's all related.

She says the future of her company lies in accommodating Website customers who want to have IDX (Internet data exchange by broker permission) and VOW (virtual office Website direct MLS data download) listing feeds. By going to the source of the feeds, the momentum is in favor of an easier sale.

Currently, Advanced Access has about 35 MLS feeds across the country and four association revenue-sharing agreements. Associations such as the North Carolina Association of Realtors; REBR (Real Estate Business Resources) for the Kansas Association of Realtors; the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR), and most recently the Illinois Association of Realtors, have joined Advanced Access' 'Revenue Enhancement Program.

The associations, explains Morrison, are doing their part by helping Advanced Access get in front of their members using direct mail and partnership links. "It's about building our reputation in the industry," she says.

With many MLSs and associations uncertain about the future of VOW data feeds, Morrison sees her company's growth connected to the associations that have made the leap to adopt the NAR's virtual office Website policy or which already have the IDX policy.

"We are waiting for the VOW rules to get finalized," she says, "Right now we provide IDX. The partnerships we work with are technology-savvy, and they want to do what's best for agents, so it is hard for us to work with organizations who are scared of technology. We wouldn't be able to partner with them in the first place."

People are going to want listings on their Websites, and that's the reality.

"The increased use of listings on a site to draw buyers is demonstrating that listings are valuable content," says Morrison, 'and it keeps the buyers coming back to the real estate agent."

Published: February 12, 2004

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