LIVE COVERAGE AND INFORMATIVE INTERVIEWS FROM BROKERIPTV.COM

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Posted in Internet Marketing, Denver Colorado Real Estate, Blogging, Real Estate Investing, MLS, Real Estate Market Conditions, Title Insurance, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Industry Trends, Lead Generation, RSS, Gen X-Y, Technology And YOU, Web 2.0 Marketing, National News

BrokerIPTV: Today, we are talking with Mark Footer, current member of the board for Metrolist and Owner/Broker of Intero Real Estate. Mark, thanks for being with us.

Mark Footer: Good Dan.

BrokerIPTV: New product for Metrolist or a new feature I should say, its called Walk Score and if people arent familiar with it, tell us what its all about.

Mark Footer: Well, Walk Score is a unique new feature, its available on the public website, REcolorado.com, and its a link. Consumers out there they search for a property, they come to the details page of a particular property they are interested in, and they are going to see bedrooms, baths, and then they are going to see a link to whats called the Walk Score.

BrokerIPTV: Okay.

Mark Footer: When they click on the Walk Score, its going to give them information on the walkability of a neighborhood, what amenities are close, schools, parks.

BrokerIPTV: See when I first saw this, I thought, "Well, this is kind of neat," you know because lets face it. You know over the last several years, people are concerned about how much they drive, whether its gas prices, energy prices, I mean before we all used to live way out in the suburbs and drive everywhere. Now, there is a movement for everyone to live in town and walk. So, if that's the case and you are looking for a property thats convenient to walk to, this feature would come in handy.

Mark Footer: Absolutely and its a quality of life issue as much as it is a savings issue. I found that there are certain segment of my buyers are looking for that experience where they can walk to the restaurants, they can walk to the shops, and where the Walk Score, it gives a rating, anywhere from below 50 would be car access only mostly, but then once you start getting up as high in the 90 scores, its saying it's walkers paradise. You can walk to... you can walk to work, you can walk to the metro stop, you can walk to school.

BrokerIPTV: This is very Web 2.0 of Metrolist. Its kind of really cool, but how does it work do you know? How do you calculate it?

Mark Footer: The folks that created the product came up with an algorithm; the algorithm takes into account the proximity as far as distance and the type of amenities that are available and they have patented it and it... I have tried it. It really does focus on the neighborhoods that have those amenities available.

BrokerIPTV: All right. For Denver Metro area for example, give me a couple of neighborhoods that have a high Walk Score?

Mark Footer: The LoDo District I think came up the highest with 97 and then followed by Capitol Hill and the Golden Triangle area, which are among the highest in the database. The Walk Score folks who created the database are in several cities. Denver is one of the highest for walkability and those are the highest neighborhood among the highest town.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah, Cherry Creek I imagine would probably be in there and...

Mark Footer: Cherry Creek is among the top four.

BrokerIPTV: I bet, okay. All right. Now, this is free, it doesn't cost, right.

Mark Footer: It doesnt cost anything, just as REcolorado.com is a service that's available to all of our members, this is just an additional service that's on top of that.

BrokerIPTV: All right. Now, its in MYmls for brokers and agents and its on REcolorado, is this going to be added to PrimeAccess?

Mark Footer: Right now its in REcolorado alone. It will be added to PrimeAccess in the near future. One of the neat things about it, its going to be a searchable field in PrimeAccess.

BrokerIPTV: Wow.

Mark Footer: So, say for example you have a client who really does want to be close to all those amenities, you can search for scores that are up there in the 90s.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah, you just select I want to see properties that have a high Walk Score.

Mark Footer: Correct.

BrokerIPTV: Great. Mark, thanks so much. Good information; looking forward to it.

Mark Footer: You bet, thanks Dan.

Posted in Headlines, MLS, Real Estate Industry Trends, Technology And YOU, Web 2.0 Marketing

BrokerIPTV: Today, we are talking with Pat Bybee, the president and CEO of Metrolist and Pat, welcome to the show.

Pat Bybee: It is a pleasure to be here.

BrokerIPTV: Today, we are going to be talking about real estate standards a little bit. I don't know that everybody knows what that means and we are going to talk about two acronyms in particular, RETS and RESO. Start with RETS.

Pat Bybee: RETS is... the term has been around for a while. It is for Real Estate Transaction Standard.

BrokerIPTV: Okay.

Pat Bybee: And RESO is the Real Estate Standards Organization. <read more>

Read more »

Posted in Headlines, MLS, Real Estate Industry Trends

BrokerIPTV:  Today, we are talking with Pat Bybee, president and CEO of Metrolist and Pat, welcome to the show.

Pat Bybee:  It's great to be here.

BrokerIPTV:  We are going to talk about data sharing.  For those who don't know what that means, there was a Denver Metrolist, there was IRIS in Boulder, there was Pikes Peak's MLS down in Colorado Springs area and you guys all decided to share some data.  When did all that happen?

Pat Bybee:  That's right.  In 2003, we started what we called CCM, which is Colorado Cooperative MLS, and it is not only a sharing of MLS listings with one another, but it extends the offer of cooperation amongst the brokers of all three MLS' instead of requiring a member of Metrolist to have to go into Pikes Peak for example and negotiate a cooperative agreement to sell property there.

BrokerIPTV:  Right.  So, people in Colorado Springs can see my listings and in Boulder see my listings by just using their respective MLS'.

Pat Bybee:  Their home MLS.  Our implementation said[Phonetic] we will share the listings with one another.  Our members don't have to learn a new system.  They use a system they are accustomed to.

BrokerIPTV:  How has that been received?

Pat Bybee:  I think really well.  The only problem, challenge was that early on it was a limited number of fields and while that told a broker enough about a listing being available, it really didn't give them all the information that they might need to tell whether or not it fits the needs of their buyers.  So, early this year... excuse me, early 2007, we... the three MLS' agreed to expand the number of fields that we were sharing and then as a part of that development effort, Metrolist issued a challenge to everyone to say let's go all the way.  We will share a 100% of our listings if you will share a 100% of your data as well.  So, February 2008, it became a reality.

BrokerIPTV:  Okay.  Wow.  So, there is a lot of value in that because we are talking a single platform for someone, right?

Pat Bybee:  If they choose, yes.  We call it MLS of choice.  You can choose to belong to just Metrolist and see all the Front Range listings.

BrokerIPTV:  And was there any opposition to that or... I am sure there was, but we have got it all worked out.

Pat Bybee:  You know not so much that you think.  The Front Range Realtors® tend to work the entire Front Range and so they saw the need.  It made a great deal of sense to them.  So, while there might have been a little you know pockets of objection, it is widely well received.

BrokerIPTV:  Logistically, there had to be some challenges in implementing that into PrimeAccess though right?

Pat Bybee:  Actually, the logistics start with how to get the data from the MLS' into ours and this is where the real estate transaction standard comes into play.  We use RETS to share the information between the MLS'.  So, the other MLS' listings go into our database just like they were a Metrolist listing.

BrokerIPTV:  Wow.  All right.  Let's talk about some special recognition that you just recently received from Greg Zadel.  Tell us about that.

Pat Bybee:  That's right.  Greg Zadel was 2008 president of Colorado Association of Realtors and he gave us the Presidential Distinguished Service Award this year at the realtor convention at the Broadmoor.

BrokerIPTV:  Wow.

Pat Bybee:  And it was strictly in recognition of the efforts and the accomplishment of the data sharing project.

BrokerIPTV:  What's ahead now for data sharing?

Pat Bybee:  More data sharing.  We are trying to encourage the state to get on board to share with one another, share with Metrolist.  We think Colorado Realtors® should be able to view all the listings that they are licensed to sell in the state of Colorado.

BrokerIPTV:  Pat, thanks for being with us.  Appreciate it.

Pat Bybee:  My pleasure.  Thank you.

Posted in Headlines, MLS, Real Estate Industry Trends

BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with Bruce Gardner, a real estate practitioner with Keller Williams and a member of the board at Metrolist. Bruce, welcome to the show.

Bruce Gardner: Thanks Dan.

BrokerIPTV: Thanks for being here. Metrolist obviously has spent an enormous amount of time and effort in Prime Access and getting up to being very Web 2.0 these days for people in the real estate business and so forth. Talk a little bit about how that is going.

Bruce Gardner: Well, the way we see it is that Prime Access will be the central point of our vision for the future. Web 2.0 concepts are about interactivity between users of the system and we see Prime Access as the heartbeat of that interactivity.

BrokerIPTV: Now, we have got a lot of different tools that are very Web 2.0 for people whether you are talking about documents online or whether it is online management or you can upload disclosures and so forth. Talk about some of those different features.

Bruce Gardner: We have a number of features that are coming online, but the key concept for us Dan is that we see the MLS of the future as the heartbeat of the real estate transaction. So, what our company, Metrolist, wants to do is be more involved with the transaction life cycle, be involved from more in the beginning to more at the end and step beyond just the data entry or database system.

BrokerIPTV: And you are talking about incorporating what, the title company in there, the mortgage company, how would that all work?

Bruce Gardner: Again, the vision for the future of MetroList is to tie all of the players in the transaction together, so that the realtor can do a single point of entry with the information on the property, the other components of the transaction can access that information through the MLS system, and work on a single platform, which will allow each of these players to be more efficient and more effective.

BrokerIPTV: What has the response been to a lot of these different features?

Bruce Gardner: We have had overwhelmingly positive response. Everyone seems to really like the new tools and the new direction of our company.

BrokerIPTV: I know a lot of realtors are kind of resistance against change. I actually have a couple of realtors in my office who are still using the really old system, before the standard www.mymls.com. Are people starting to move over from mymls to Prime Access?

Bruce Gardner: Well, it is a good question, because I don't think it is just Realtors® that are hesitant to change; I think it is people in general, but what we are really seeing is an adoption of the new Prime Access system and transition through, but keep in mind, Metrolist is one of the only companies in the country, MLS systems in the country, that offers this level of choice to their users. Our users have three different access methods to the MLS data, the old system, the current mymls, and the new platform called Prime Access. In addition to that, we have created interconnectivity so that our users can choose to use a front end software solution by a different vendor if they would rather do that too.

BrokerIPTV: Now the old, old access, is that going away?

Bruce Gardner: Well, eventually, it will; yes.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah and then eventually, everyone will phase from mymls into Prime Access?

Bruce Gardner: Absolutely.

BrokerIPTV: All right. Do you have a specific feature that you like the best?

Bruce Gardner: Well, the new features what I really enjoy is the Microsoft mapping feature, which allows us to really not only do a search based on the location, but then transition over to a satellite view. You can actually see the property from a satellite view, look at it on a 45 degree angle, and learn much more about the property than you would through a static database system.

BrokerIPTV: I like that as well, because when you pull up and you are searching for a home for a buyer and you have got all of your actives down there at the bottom, you are trying to see on the map how close in proximity they are to each other, so you don't have a drive all the way over here and a drive over here; if you see them all bunched, you are kind of happy and say, "Okay, we know where we are going." So, that is a favorite feature of mine. There is a lot of stuff that is in testing still from Metrolist and Prime Access to support the whole transaction lifestyle. Talk a little bit about that.

Bruce Gardner: Well, on the front end of the transaction, we are looking at integrating CRM customer relationship tools into the system, so a user can start to work with the data that is specific to a client and then connect it and marry it to a property that they end up wanting to buy. On the back end of the system, we are also looking at integrating... we already have integrated Instanet contract software, allows the user to do the contract online, manage that paperwork all the way through the transaction, and then store it after the transaction is closed indefinitely.

BrokerIPTV: Wow! That sounds great. Bruce, thanks. It is terrific information. Appreciate you being here.

Bruce Gardner: All right Dan. Thank you.

Posted in Headlines, MLS, Real Estate Industry Trends, Web 2.0 Marketing