Comments on MLS Tesseract: REALTORS® Property Resource: A possible business m...

say same thing I said over at Notorious R.O.B. – o...

2009-11-08T07:34:21.135-06:00

say same thing I said over at Notorious R.O.B. – one thing missing in this mix, GOOGLE – thoughts?

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/realestate/data_provider_faq.html

oops! the last comment was me I forgot to sign in....

2009-11-08T06:15:43.620-06:00

oops! the last comment was me I forgot to sign in.

Thanks for mentioning our MLS here in Minnesota. W...

2009-11-08T06:14:29.601-06:00

Thanks for mentioning our MLS here in Minnesota. We do have a record for every piece of property at least in the 13 county metro area through our property tax data base. We have all the data we need. sadly they did not include a report writer. I have been able to get all of the charts and graphs I need for my blog by exporting the data into MS excel. Most agents don't know how to do all of

An MLS exec suggested privately that RPR could do ...

2009-10-21T06:21:14.858-05:00

An MLS exec suggested privately that RPR could do a trade with MLSs:

1. RPR signs national licenses with public records providers, buying out their MLS contracts and licensing their data (a) for RPR's own system and (b) to sublicense to MLSs.

2. RPR GIVES public record data to MLSs, substantially reducing their costs or providing a new valuable service, if MLS does not

As an MLS that recently provided their members pub...

2009-10-20T15:40:30.754-05:00

As an MLS that recently provided their members public record/parcel based data for all 100 counties in the state, and did not hit their members up for any additional fee's to access, I also wonder what benefit will be derived from providing the 'national' data based on the old adage of "Real Estate is Local". Although that cliche may have lived and died, I realize that many

As a former colleague at REBIG (hate to admit it m...

2009-10-20T10:14:58.101-05:00

As a former colleague at REBIG (hate to admit it most times) I have to say I have similar thoughts regarding what the end game thinking is for RPR and how they may intend to monetize it. Should be interesting in San Diego.

I also agree with your comments regarding the value to brokers and agents, in that, I don't see any real, new compelling values that are not being provided

MLS data is ridiculously valuable. The richest, cl...

2009-10-20T08:57:04.824-05:00

MLS data is ridiculously valuable. The richest, cleanest and most up-to-date information available related to real property in the world. While the primary reason this quality emerged is because it provides brokers with a significant value-add, I've long felt that brokers, associations and MLSs are leaving serious $$$'s on the table that could arise from packaging the data to third

I’m looking at RPR from another perspective: that ...

2009-10-20T07:21:23.002-05:00

I’m looking at RPR from another perspective: that is, the plan is a giant step for NAR to free itself from the limitations of being a geography-based association in an internet-centered world. NAR was founded on a ‘market area’ structure which has been outdated for more than 50 years. It is also limited by a real estate licensed-based membership model, and we all know that the real estate

I see the MLS subscriber as a key participant but ...

2009-10-19T18:45:36.708-05:00

I see the MLS subscriber as a key participant but paying a small piece of the revenue. One step forward, imagine a world where the MLS subscriber was actually compensated directly for updating and maintaining accuracy of the information. Kind of 'adopt a highway' program with direct pay-for-performance.

The commercial aspects of this homogenized data is almost too vast to

WOW is this a real world business model? The curre...

2009-10-19T17:32:52.862-05:00

WOW is this a real world business model? The current business model for most MLS’s in the country is paid for by a broker and all agents licensed with the broker type of revenue stream. Even if we could get 800 MLS’s, 100's of vendors and 1,000,000 REALTORS to agree, how would the model survive as a pay for service? Today I'm guessing only one third of the membership actually uses the

@Troy: I think U R right. But I wonder if NAR will...

2009-10-19T16:52:45.966-05:00

@Troy: I think U R right. But I wonder if NAR will avoid VCs and their focus on taking company to IPO or acquisition.

If NAR wants strategic value out of this, maybe it will keep itself directly in control (unlike what happened when NAR took REALTOR.com into the public-company space)?

-Brian

One of the coolest notions about the whole idea is...

2009-10-19T16:47:40.609-05:00

One of the coolest notions about the whole idea is we really can only scratch the surface with a standardized national database of real property.

From an investment vehicle standpoint, I would imagine a solid business plan outlining the initial capitalization, on-going expenses, and potential near-term revenues would sell very well in the venture world.

@Mike: I guess my question has never been, "C...

2009-10-19T16:01:49.652-05:00

@Mike: I guess my question has never been, "Can RPR add value?" It has been, "How will RPR be paid for?"

You said "RPR could provide agents access to MLS data they otherwise wouldn't have through their local or regional MLS." That's true, but the question is whether brokers in the local market will be willing to pay RPR for that service when they

A couple of possibilities, both centering on the b...

2009-10-19T14:15:59.625-05:00

A couple of possibilities, both centering on the border-less (or national) scope of RPR: (a) RPR could provide an API to MLS vendors for including property records in the MLS system; and (b) RPR could provide agents access to MLS data they otherwise wouldn't have through their local or regional MLS.

Even though both already exist in some form, they don't exist in border-less

That was a fun brainstorming session. As discussed...

2009-10-19T13:24:44.349-05:00

That was a fun brainstorming session. As discussed, we could take the scenario further - for instance once all the MLS data is in one place, create value-add features, at some point add MLS-like features, then turn on direct listing maintenance...

And in exchange for the data usage, what if the core (National MLS) service were free?

We can spin these scenarios out far and