Industry veteran envisions marriage of MLS, Web 2.0
Inman News
Multiple listing services are not dead or irrelevant, real estate
technology industry guru Saul Klein says in a paper released this week,
though they must evolve to embrace Web 2.0 ideals and expand beyond
for-sale listing information to encompass parcel-based information.
It's
not an entirely new concept for the real estate industry. Third-party
sites such as Zillow and Cyberhomes, among others, already provide a
range of information on tens of millions of U.S. homes at free public
Web sites.
And leaders of the National Association of Realtors trade group have announced a plan to create a national property database
that will compile information for industry professionals about all
types of property across the country. As proposed, this database would
not replace MLSs, and MLSs could be participants in sharing data with
the database and channeling database information to their members.
While there had been discussions early on about offering limited public
access to this database, more recent discussions have focused on a
password-protected database that is not accessible by consumers.
But Klein's concept, which he dubs "MLS 5.0," does introduce a new way of thinking for MLSs.
The paper, "MLS Today and MLS Tomorrow," attempts to answer, "What will be required to build on the current solid foundation of today's MLS?"
Klein,
a licensed broker since 1977 who serves as CEO for real estate
technology companies InternetCrusade and Point2 Technologies, proposes
that a key element to this futuristic MLS is that it includes all
parcels of real property and leverages information from a variety of
sources over time "to bring consumers and real estate professionals
together on the Web to participate in an ongoing conversation with real
estate at its center."
He envisions that this next-generation
MLS will have a public-facing side for consumers to interact with real
estate professionals, and a private side accessible only by real estate
professionals.
The MLS should feature online communities for
real estate professionals and consumers alike, should have multilingual
capabilities, agent-rating and referral systems, agent profiles, and
updated neighborhood information that accepts user-generated content,
as examples.
The MLS should encourage innovation and allow for a
variety of front-end software to access the data. "Openness should
allow for more applications and solutions and lower prices for
Realtors," the paper states.
Why call it 5.0? Klein explains in
the paper that he considers the first generation of the MLS to be the
three-ring binders with printed weekly updates and daily errata that
were commonplace in the days before the Web. The second generation was
the bound MLS book, and computer access to real estate data through
simple terminals is defined as the third generation.
The fourth
generation, according to the paper, was the Web-based MLS, and the
fifth generation incorporates components of Web 2.0.
Klein
proposes that MLS 5.0 is "open, collaborative, self-organizing and
self-policed," and it serves as a property "wiki" that allows users to
enter and update information, a social networking site, and
incorporates "single sign-on" technology that allows users to log in
once to gain access to multiple systems, among other attributes.
While
industry discussions have traditionally centered on keeping real estate
professionals at the center of the home-sale transaction, Klein
suggests that real estate professionals "must now be at the 'center of
the conversation' about real property, and this is essential to the
mission of MLS 5.0."
His proposed mission statement for MLS 5.0:
"Keep the Realtor in the center of the real estate conversation,
realizing that conversation extends from far in advance of a purchase
and continues after a purchase of real property. Real estate is a
lifetime conversation."
There are many ways to generate exposure
for property listings information these days, the paper states. In
addition to placing property listings information in MLSs, real estate
professionals and individual sellers can post information on sites
ranging from Yahoo and Google to Craigslist, Realtor.com, Trulia and
Zillow, among others.
The MLS "must reflect the new realities," Klein states.
In
addition to for-sale information, the MLS should carry historic sold
data, public data, and consumer-generated content from "online
communities, groups, blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies and
applications," Klein proposes.
While MLS systems have
traditionally served as broker-to-broker networks, the MLS can take on
more of a role in marketing, the paper states.
"MLS needs to
redefine itself from a purely business-to-business network tool to a
marketing facilitator for its participants and subscribers. It needs to
take advantage of its assets and shift its paradigm from information
about what is for sale to information on all property whether for sale
or not."
While Klein acknowledges it will take time for MLS
systems to get on board with such changes, he notes that rapid and
sweeping changes are common in this era of technological innovation.
"How
many people knew of Google five years ago and how many know of it
today? In a short span of time, unknown Web sites have become household
words.
"The world of MLS as we know it is approaching a cliff,
and many riding the MLS train do not see the cliff as it gets closer
with each passing day."