Real estate brokers and agents have had a beef with MLS systems for a long time. Client records entered into the MLS for saved searches have been stuck there. The number one reason why agents hate system conversions is that all of their client’s saved searches are lost. This type of data management is highly secure, but at the sacrifice of being considered “siloed.” This does not happen 100% of the time, but it is more likely than not. Even in cases where the customer records can be moved, many MLSs forgo the expense and simply tell agents to rekey their clients to the new system during the parallel phase of the conversion.

When CoreLogic did a massive conversion to move all MLXchange accounts over to Matrix, they figured out how to move the clients from one client portal over to the Matrix Client portal, along with the saved searches. A nuance to understanding the challenges of this move involves a deep understanding of what a saved search is. A saved search is a database query. When you switch systems, you need to convert the database query to work with the language structure of the new database. This takes a complex mapping of data fields and some logic management. It is a lot easier to do this type of conversion between MLXchange and Matrix (two systems that one vendor owns) than it ever would be between competitive MLS systems – like going from Rapattoni to Stratus – or moving from any vendor system to another vendor system where the vendors are competitors.

A new day has arrived

Brokers are not immune to this on their systems either. When brokers are switching between broker website vendors, the saved searches and favorites of registered users are often lost. AgentAchieve was one of the first solutions to offer an API for making those saved searches transportable – but that product is no longer being sold. Today, nearly all of the broker website platforms have these APIs. This is good news because it makes the saved searches transportable between systems – or sharable with other apps like a mobile search app.

In a press release last week, CoreLogic announced that they have opened up the integration to the Matrix Client Portal to Prospects Software. Prospects develops mobile MLS solutions and CRM solutions to enhance agent productivity. The pilot for this integration was in Montreal (CENTRIS). Now it is available in every Matrix Market as a premium service. For the first time, the Matrix Client portal is integrated into a full CRM. The integrations are available in MLS-Touch as well. Now, agents do not need to duplicate client records in the MLS and their CRM. That type of integration is enormous. Since the release of the Palm Pilot with ActiveSync, everyone expects that a customer record in one piece of software will sync up with other software so it does not need to be reentered. Now, for the first time – that is finally how it will work with the MLS.

This spring, the same integration with Matrix will be live with Homesnap Pro, the customer portal for the Broker Public Portal. This is an enormous opportunity for the real estate industry. Matrix sends about 100 million email alerts each month on behalf of agents. If those email alerts go out through the Broker Public Portal, with a reasonable click through rate, the Broker Public Portal would become one of the most used consumer search sites in America. That would be an awesome accomplishment by the industry to reimagine where consumers get their property information – from agents who represent them rather than advertising portals.

Opening up the client portal in the MLS is a great thing for real estate and systems integrations that make our industry work better. FBS FlexMLS, Black Knight Paragon, Rapattoni, DynaConnections, and others are all moving forward with programs to make these integrations possible. That is great leadership, and the industry will be made better for it.

Here is the full press release from CoreLogic:

• 09 May, 2019
• Montreal
• By Lisa Gaetz

PROSPECTS SOFTWARE LAUNCHES ADVANCED INTEGRATIONS WITH MATRIX

MONTREAL, QC, May 09, 2019 — Prospects Software, a member of the CoreLogic® Alliance Network and leading provider of mobile MLS and CRM tools for real estate professionals, announced today the launch of the first in a series of advanced integration features with the CoreLogic Matrix™ multiple listing platform.

The new integrations are already live in some US and Canadian markets allowing agents to view, add, and edit contacts in Matrix, Prospects CRM and/or MLS-Touch, also known as Prospects Mobile in Canada. All leads, contacts and client activities such as favorites, possibilities, and suggested listings are automatically synchronized in real time between the three tools, creating a seamless client engagement hub for agents.

A video of the new integrations can be seen here.

“The work that CoreLogic and Prospects Software are doing together takes solutions integration to a new level,” said Chris Bennett, executive leader of Real Estate Solutions for CoreLogic. “Many of our clients want to offer premium mobile and CRM applications as part of their subscriber services, but it’s difficult to create efficiencies unless they all work together in a seamless ecosystem. We are truly breaking new ground with this three-way synchronization between mobile, CRM, and MLS. I’m very excited to bring this innovation to Matrix clients.”

“We’ve been with Prospects Software for several years now, offering both their mobile service and CRM platform to our members,” said Alan Tennant, CEO of the Calgary Real Estate Board. “Their solutions are very popular and widely adopted, and we’re happy to be one of the first boards to have rolled out these new integrations that will make these tools even better. It will bring a lot of efficiencies that will help tremendously with agents’ daily business which our members told us, appreciatively, as soon as these features were launched.”

“This is the fruition of our alliance with CoreLogic and working together to create amazing user experiences for agents and their clients,” said Charles Drouin, founder and CEO of Prospects Software. “Mobile MLS and CRM are two of the most important tools that agents depend on beyond their primary MLS. It’s long overdue that ALL these systems are connected and working together. We’re very excited to roll this out, and this is just the first of many additional integrations with Matrix that you will see in the coming weeks.”