Mar. 31, 2009 - The MLS Mission Statement: A Short Presentation

I hope that MLS executives and board members find this presentation about the MLS Mission Statement educational and useful when considering strategic planning activities. 

View the presentation here: http://www.callclareity.com/MLS-mission.cfm

Mar. 17, 2009 - MLS Public Web Sites: 2009 Short Survey Response

I have an MLS client who wanted to get the 'lay of the land' when it came to MLS public sites. I called over 50 MLSs with public sites and asked a few questions of interest to my client - perhaps you will find the answers of interest as well:
 
Do you display sold/off market listings on your public site(s)? 
NO- 29        YES- 10        Considering- 13
 
Do you allow your brokers to display sold/off market listings on their sites?  
NO-17        YES- 21        Considering- 14
 
Do you display property address on your public facing web sites and online partner sites?
NO-4        YES- 36         Opt Out- 14

Visiting 94 public web sites, I found that 93% displayed street address and 95% of those displaying addresses also displayed a map to the  listing.

 

Mar. 10, 2009 - Wearable Tech - A "Sixth Sense"

WOW! game-changing wearable tech from the Fluid Interface group at the MIT Media Lab - http://tinyurl.com/btmdy6

Mar. 10, 2009 - Virtual Office Websites: Challenges and Opportunities

One of the highest rated sessions at Clareity's MLS Executive Workshop was the "Virtual Office Websites: Challenges and Opportunities" presentation. I've posted the presentation, along with some talking points here: http://www.callclareity.com/VirtualOfficeWebsites-2009.pdf

Mar. 9, 2009 - 8th Annual MLS Customer Satisfaction Survey

I have posted the results of the 8th Annual MLS Customer Satisfaction Survey on http://www.callclareity.com/ - linked right from the home page. This year, 178 MLSs (14 more than last year) completed the survey, representing 817,140 subscribers. 

The Annual MLS Customer Satisfaction Survey is a valuable source of input for MLS executives when evaluating a vendor's service and system capabilities, but I encourage all clients to do their due diligence: there are many factors to consider in evaluating which MLS system is best for your specific organization - this is just one piece of the puzzle.  

Mar. 3, 2009 - Guessing the MLS RFP Outcome

When I help an MLS organization in their system selection process I always try to guess what the final selection outcome will be after I get back the proposals (but before the final demonstrations). Reflecting on the last three RFPs where my guess was incorrect over the past few months, the following were the reasons why:

* In the first RFP, I thought they would value performance and ease of use but they prioritized robust reporting and statistical outputs.

* In the second RFP, I thought they would prioritize price, system customization capability and overall system satisfaction but they made a surprising selection and couldn't really articulate why they went the way they did - but I don't second-guess clients.

* In the third RFP, I thought they would prioritize the 'partner fit' as the two finalists fielded very competitive systems at similar prices but their impression of the system overall was the most dominent factor in their decision.

I always try to make sure clients have the most thorough information at their fingertips to make a good business decision in an MLS system selection process, but how they will weigh that information and make a final decision is always interesting and the unexpected results fascinate me.