So Carolyn Capalbo has been having a rough time recently. One Carolyn Capalbo is a realtor in Virginia. Another Carolyn Capalbo is related to the scandal related to governor Eliot Spitzer. The issue is that when people search for Carolyn because of her real estate business they run into a bunch of gossip magazines talking about the other one. Hopefully the scandal will eventually be forgotten by but its a wierd problem for a business.
So NAR released more information on RPR this week. So what is RPR? The initials stand for the Realtors Property Resource, a somewhat unassuming name. I assume the name was chosen intentionally to sound benign. But the “Realtors Property Resource” is in fact a national realtor facing MLS. To make matters more interesting its 100% free for realtors. They are going to make money be selling the average sales data to other institutions like wall street to allow them to make better financial decision.
MLS boards across the country are understandably nervous. Realtors typically pay $1000 or more a year to access a local mls system. And some realtors are unhappy with handing mls fees ever year to their board. There has been no alternative for realtors in past, either join the local mls and pay whatever fees they decide to charge or simply find a new profession.
So let’s break down a comparison between RPR and the local MLS
| Local MLS | RPR | |
| Cost | $1000+ a year | Free |
| Scope | Only homes in your Region | National Access |
| Budget For Tool | Varies | Greater than any local MLS |
So now with RPR not only do they finally have an alternative, buts it’s free, and realtors can not simply search for homes in their city they can search for properties anywhere in the United States, and because of a larger budget could actually have more functionality that what most realtors are used to.
So what does this mean? Basically MLS’s are going to lose revenue. And judging from what I have read they are somewhat nervous. They have been going for several years with basically no competition. Now not only do they have competition but it’s from a competitor with more development money and a free product.
So what are there options? They could try and fight the change but it would be difficult and they will probably lose in the end. If realtors in city x are still paying 1000+ a year to their board and a neighboring city is getting free access through the RPR (and the RPR is a decent system and early reports are that it is) you can imagine the kind of revolt you are going to see.
Probably a smarter move is to retool and figure out how a board can operate without control of the MLS and the corresponding mls fees.
But it’s going to be a difficult transition. The MLS boards are used to being able to say it’s our way or the highway. That era has just come to an end.
Ki operates in Austin Texas. He runs a site about Austin real estate. While his site doesn’t have direct access to the Austin MLS it shows homes in the Austin MLS.
I signed up for a Google Voice invite a couple of months ago and received my invitation after waiting 2-3 weeks. Google Voice is pretty awesome, in theory – like LOR, it’s “one number to rule them all.” You give out one phone number and then pick which phones you want it to ring – office, mobile, home, etc… They also allow you to choose your new number. So, after spending 3-4 hours (literally) choosing my number, I was ready to rock.
But…I don’t want to change my phone number.
The one flaw in Google Voice is that you can’t yet port a number in. So, if you’re like me and have had your current mobile number for 7+ years, you probably don’t want to go through the hassle of telling everyone that it’s changed. If you do go through the hassle of telling everyone it’s changed, then you’re going to have 2+ voice mailboxes to check until the late adapters finally remember to call your new number.
Today, Mashable had an announcement of a neat site called Rentshout.com that helps with syndicating your rental listings to every site you could imagine. Most of the normal ones are there; Craiglist, Google Base, and Yahoo Real estate. However, there are plenty others that your listings are sent to that increase exposure for your rental.
RentShout combines social media distribution of housing and rental listings with speed, simplicity, and analytics. The core of RentShout is to get your listing onto dozens of directories and websites – including CraigsList – but it comes with features such as video syndication and Click-To-Call which make it stand out as a way to distribute your listings. – Mashable
TechForAgents.com is sponsored by this Houston real estate site, which features Houston homes and Houston condos for sale.
