Corpus Christi Association of REALTORS® Selects Discover MLS
Valencia, Calif., Oct 19, 2011 –
Discover Software, Inc. (Discover) announced today that the Corpus Christi Association of REALTORS® (CCAR) has chosen Discover MLS as its new MLS software platform, to be installed in second quarter next year.
Following a competitive selection process, Discover MLS was chosen for a variety of reasons. In particular, the social networking features and benefits of Discover’s state-of-the-art Multiple Listing Service software stood out when compared to other vendors. Discover MLS is the industry’s first and only production-ready, next-generation solution, designed from the ground up to harness the power of both Adobe Flash® and HTML5.
Leveraging this powerful platform, the application now includes:
- Client Portal: providing full integration with Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, plus live chat between the client and agent.
- Discover Mobile: utilizing HTML5 (an industry first!), accessible on any smartphone or tablet (iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, etc), with robust features like count-on-the-fly, “smart” text-entry fields, and integration with your local mapping app.
“Technology is changing faster than ever, and we wanted a vendor who can keep pace,” said Gary Doran, chief executive officer for CCAR. “After considering our options thoroughly, Discover was the clear choice. The software is way ahead of the competition, and the company has the right vision and leadership to ensure it stays that way. Equally important, we also believe that Discover’s intuitive design, flexible architecture, and on-line video training materials will provide a smooth transition for our members.”
Bret Wiener, President of Discover, said, “We are very pleased to offer our newest group of users in Corpus Christi the full benefit of today’s online MLS experience, integrating social networking and real-time communications to connect agents and clients like never before. With great feedback and guidance from progressive customers like Gary Doran and his members in the Coastal Bend, we will continue to push the industry forward with exciting new innovations.”
As part of its standard offering, Discover will launch a test site by the end of the year – with data synchronized in real-time – for committee members to begin a structured review of data mapping, business rules, reports, and more.
About the Corpus Christi Association of REALTORS®:
The Corpus Christi Association of REALTORS® has served the real estate needs of the Coastal Bend Area of Texas since 1925. The Association operates the Coastal Bend Multiple Listing Service which covers a five county area along the Gulf Coast of Texas. The MLS provides over 900 real estate practitioners with the technology tools to service consumer needs in the buying, selling and appraisal of real estate in the coastal bend area.
For more information, please contact the Corpus Christi Association of REALTORS® at (361) 991-8221 or visit http://www.ccaronline.com or http://coastalbendlifestyle.com
About Discover Software, Inc:
Discover MLS Software was launched in 2010 by a group of partners with more than 40 years of combined real-estate industry experience. Determined to set new standards for the MLS software marketplace, the goal was simple: raise the bar.
Working together in previous years, Discover’s founders deployed and supported over 100 MLS customers nationwide, constantly frustrated by the limitations of the Web 1.0 platform. Beginning in 2008, the Discover MLS application was designed from the ground up for usability, flexibility, high-performance, and low-cost operation. Web 2.0 is about new ways of thinking and interacting, not just new technology. Think you know MLS software? Think again.
For more information, please contact Discover at (800) 964-2656 or visit http://www.discovermls.com.
Developing Rich Web Apps: The Tough Stuff — Part II
As promised, I’m back with another installment of The Tough Stuff (aka, “the dark side” of RIA web development). This time, the topic is paginated search results (barf).
As the web got seriously underway in the late 90′s, search results were often not paginated at all. Some sites posed a “reasonable” max search results limit (50, 100, etc) — or else no limit was imposed, and you’d have to sit & wait for a mile-long page to download & render. Of course, count-on-the-fly was virtually impossible back in those days (when Microsoft and Netscape were such bitter rivals that almost no Javascript was safe), so you wouldn’t know if you were going to hit the ceiling or wait until you hit the “View Results” button…with your fingers crossed.
Today, the expectations are much higher. Even without count-on-the-fly, we can’t limit users to 100 results or something, and even with count-on-the-fly, users will sometimes run searches that return nearly 1,000 results.
For years now, the most popular solution has been to “paginate” search results. Show a user 25 or 50 results at a time, with “VCR” controls to see the next/previous batch. This isn’t exactly ideal either, though, if a user actually wants to work with the data (sort, filter, scan, hide, etc).
So, in the RIA world, where the bar continues to rise, what’s the answer? Sadly, too many developers are still just paginating (or showing everything in one shot, which is equally puke-inducing). However, thanks to the pioneering work of Facebook, Yahoo, and more recently, a slew of mobile app developers, a new mechanism is emerging at last!
Android Keeps on Climbing
Seen smartphone browsing at 4G LTE yet? Seen Flash on a dual-core Android device yet? Seen righteous mobile multi-tasking on Honeycomb yet? If not, you need to!
These are just a few of the reasons Android’s numbers keep climbing so rapidly. Of course, Google’s free license for the OS doesn’t hurt, but users have to actually like it in order to achieve this kind of adoption — over 5% marketshare grab in 3 months!
Courtesy of Inman and comScore…
On competition, and flattery…
Discover was the first vendor to offer a next-generation, web-based MLS system. By that, I mean built from the ground up with a service-oriented architecture, a rich user interface, cross-browser compatibility, and extensive use of cloud, caching, and CDN technologies. After pioneering the RIA frontier with Adobe Flash, we’ve also now blazed a trail with mobile-optimized software built using HTML5.
Amazingly, while our competitors have spent millions of dollars already, we’re still the only production-proven next-gen system available. If LPS and CoreLogic are successful, that will change before long – and we welcome them with open arms. Why? Because competition is a good thing!
From athletics to business, we all perform our best when we’re pushed, whether chasing or being chased.
More to Discover….
So much has been talked about regarding social media and online presence lately. I had the pleasure of sitting thru several excellent speakers last week during the MLS Cloud event in Houston. Most of the speakers talked in depth about the internet experience, from nearly every position: The Realtor®, the homeowner, the prospective home buyer, the MLS user and several others.
One of the most interesting presentations came from Curt Beardsley, VP Business Development, Move Inc. Some of his information that I thought was provoking: The average first time home buyer today is 30 years old, and the average Realtor® is over 50 years old. In addition, when you really boil everything down, the average homebuyer is really ‘qualified’ to buy about 50 homes—once you take into account all of their wants and needs. That is, specific neighborhoods with specific schools, price, proximity to other amenities, parks, crime stats, etc. Further, they spend 12 weeks searching and kicking the tires, and generally see 12 homes. He said that 66% of the prospects drive by the home after viewing the property online.
This is the kind of information that should be very valuable to the average Realtor®, if they pay attention to all of the information available to them. One would think that they would begin to utilize their online presence in a more deliberate manner. I think the smart agents do. Another interesting fact: HAR.com CEO Bob Hale said that only 54% of his members actually had one side of a transaction last year. Hmmm…what are the rest of them doing?
On the last day of the conference, someone suggested that Facebook should allow for Single Sign On to the local MLS, and allow the users to leverage their contacts from Facebook. That is an excellent idea. In addition, it was suggested that consumers should be able to utilize Agent Ratings from the MLS system, allow agents to rate one another internally, have the ability to initiate live chat from the client portal, rate the listings that have been sent to them and provide the agent with valuable feedback while viewing the listings. These are easy to use and should be standard in most systems today.
In fact, Discover MLS has already integrated these exact features in our software! It was great to hear that these were highly desired features to an MLS system.
These are great times to be participating in the online experience. Take advantage of the tools available to you, and if they are not, then ask when they will be made available.
MLS Systems: Try Before you Buy?
RE Technology recently posted an article regarding reasons to “Try Before you Buy” (http://retechnology.com/agent/articles/4-reasons-to-try-before-you-buy).
Why don’t more MLS’s conduct this same approach when selecting a new MLS vendor? It would seem like a logical approach to install and run parallel with another product up to a year before their current MLS system vendor contract expires. This would allow for easy comparison, functionality and feature review and an excellent way to field agent reaction.
Offering two front ends, perhaps with only one listing input option, could create a much more ‘customer friendly’ approach for MLS’s. They could demonstrate transparency and openness to making decisions while still maintaining a strong leadership role. As related in the article, a trial period could offer many benefits to both the MLS and its members. In the event that the ‘current’ vendor was to be replaced, the transition becomes that much easier for both groups.
During the recent NAR meetings, I listened to an excellent panel discussion, where several MLS CEO’s and their leadership discussed the role of leadership and implementing change. They talked about how vendors should approach them with new products and services and what a vendor should NOT do when trying to sell them a product. Adding a choice to your MLS front end could often alleviate some of the issues discussed and, in fact, seems to embrace their philosophies.
In another article recently published on RE Technology, the topic of how MLS’s make technology decisions was questioned. Again, in my humble opinion, providing members a choice of systems and a ‘try before you buy’ approach makes sense as our business matures and moves forward.
Developing Rich Web Apps: The Tough Stuff — Part I
Building apps in Flex (or any RIA tool, really) is wonderful for lots of reasons. Many things you only wished you could do with ajax are now possible…and reliable. Event-driven code with animations, multi-tasking, and rich, interactive, immersive controls. Don’t get me started unless you have some time.
But are there downsides to building an app in this brave new world? Tough stuff you have to overcome? Well, sure. As you spend more & more time around anything new, you inevitably find some bad with the good. New paradigms aren’t much different than new people, you see.
To shed some light on this dark side of development, I’ll take a moment here & there to comment on the things that challenge us most here at Discover. It’s important to ponder these special gifts, since for us developers, the moments with the most pain & suffering are usually the ones when we learn the most.
One great example goes way back to our early days. If you search via any avenue in the software and find a listing that’s yours (i.e.; you’re the listing agent), you can click a button to ‘Revise’ the it. Nothing groundbreaking, just a time-saver so you don’t have to go to a separate module or something to modify one of your own listings. But in our implementation, the workflow (because of the capabilities of Flash, compared to a more traditional html/ajax app) was significantly different, and that presented a BIG challenge.
HTML5 vs Flash — An Entrepeneur’s Guide
By the end of April, all Discover MLS users will have access to a Mobile-friendly version of the software. This is really just a new front-end (or user interface) to the Discover MLS system — designed for the smaller (and touch-capable) screens of smartphones and pads, and built in HTML5.
Wait…did he say…HTML5??
Yes, that’s right. The company that brought you the first (and STILL the only) MLS system built in Adobe Flash will soon be the first & only MLS software company delivering an HTML5-based user interface, as well.
This obviously implies that we think Apple isn’t going to relent, and Flash will likely not be supported on iPhone or iPad this year. I’m still the first to say “it’s only a matter of time” before mounting pressure from Google (i.e.; Android) will force the issue…but we can’t afford to sit around and wait for Steve Jobs to ponder the potential reduction of App Store revenue any longer 
Footnote: It’s interesting to see that Android’s marketshare is still climbing, even with the iPhone available on a worthy cell network at last!
This also puts Discover in a uniquely-qualified position to discuss the relative pro’s and con’s of developing software in HTML5 and Flash, which is the subject I really want to cover.
What other choices does the Real Estate Professional have?
With the looming increase for the NAR membership fee — up by 50% — what other choices does the Real Estate Professional have? It seems to me that NAR membership is virtually required to participate in the real estate industry in America today.
Most MLS’s in the country requires NAR membership. All AOR’s/BOR’s require membership. So, in order to access all of the ‘real’ information regarding properties and participate in the compensation, you really have to be a member of this large ‘labor union.’ (See this article: http://realblogging.com/matt-jones/the-emperor-has-no-clothes/).
Is it just a labor union? Is the value equation really there? These are valuable questions and need to be addressed in the face of today’s technology, the way the consumer now demands information and service, social media and the housing crisis. Why does it seem like no one is really asking these questions? And when they do, those who ask and even think about making changes are labeled heretics?
I am not a Realtor, but have been a part of this industry since 1986. I love most of the people in this industry and it has afforded me a living for a long time. For the most part, I think things are working great. I am not qualified to answer some of the questions that I am posing here. However, that being said, I have always wondered what the REAL value of NAR membership is?
I get the advertising. I understand the branding. I completely understand and can see value in the legislative and lobbying area. Continuing education is sketchy to me, having seen so many Realtors that I would never allow to sell my home or represent me in the buying process. You can’t educate someone who is just incompetent.
So, where is the value? I would love to hear from all of the great professionals in this business. I know the answers are out there……
Best-of-Breed Integrations
Where should an MLS vendor draw the line on functionality? Is a full-blown “CMA Package” really a core feature? How about frame-able IDX search?
An MLS system, at the most primary level, consists of listing input (business rule enforcement), search, and reports. Sure, I’m the first to push the envelope when it makes sense…but at Discover, our mission is to out-innovate the competition on the primary elements first and foremost. Everything else is gravy.
These days, merely competing on meat & potatoes is a tall order. So, when we see an arguably complementary product (or an entire niche) that’s already captured the hearts and minds of agents around the country, we do our best to avoid reinventing the wheel (er, uh, gravy). Leveraging the strength of industry partners is a win-win-win: our users get great new tools, our partners gain traction (and over time, their products continue to improve as a result), and Discover stays focused on building a better MLS.
In recent months, two products really captured our hearts and minds. Simply put, it was love at first sight. Both products filled a void in our software that we were poised to fill/develop ourselves, but these products are so good that any reasonable person considering a “build vs buy” decision has an easy task.