FBS Blog

I received a voice mail today from a guy saying he is with the Better Business Bureau here in North Dakota and indicating he has “some reports on our company” or something like that.  As I’m listening, I’m thinking, whoa, that’s pretty weird.  So, I call the guy and leave a voice mail and he calls me back in a few minutes.  He starts the call out the same exact way, but then quickly spins it into a sales pitch for being “certified” by their service.  It’s a good sales pitch, but the whole time I’m thinking, crap, I’ve just been duped by the Better Business Bureau!  I would never have returned the call had I known it was a sales pitch and my guess is this guy was plenty experienced with that and new the effect his not-so-vague voice mail would have.  After about two or three minutes of pitch, culminating in the $895 “value”, I said I’d need time to think about it, really just wanting to get off the phone, and the guy immediately launched into close mode with his “what objections do you have”, blah, blah, blah.  I wanted to just let him have it for what I felt was an abusive sales call from the Better Business Bureau of all places, but I didn’t want to get a bad “report” either and so I decided I’d just vent by blogging. 

Inman reports today that Greg Robertson and Dan Woolley are leaving their leadership roles at eNeighborhoods the end of this month.  Stu Siegal and Dave Meyer, the founders, have already left.   What interests me most about this news is what Greg and Dan will be up to next.

I’ll make them sound old when they aren’t by this, but I’ve looked up to both of these guys and their achievements in the real estate software industry for a long time.  From the early days founding Iris and the Lightning line of software products to their huge accomplishments at eNeighborhoods, including revolutionizing IDX aggregation for RE/MAX and Realogy.

Given their past success, I’m confident whatever these guys take on next will be huge and, most important, hugely satisfying for them.  If you’re interested, you can keep track of Dan at Tzetze Fly and Greg at Vendor Alley.

Read/Write Web had an interesting post the other day about reading habits on the web, commenting on an article by usability guru Jakob Nielson:

What Nielson found by analyzing the data in the study was that although people spend more time on pages with more words and more information, they only spend 4.4 seconds more for each additional 100 words. By calculating reading rates, he concluded that when you add more verbiage to a page, people will only read 18% of it. . . .  Nielsen has been interested in how users read on the web for a long time and he has determined that the truth is that people don’t read very much, often scanning text instead of really reading it. His recent eyetracking studies validate this finding, as well.

I found this interesting, especially following my post awhile back on how I use Google Reader.  At the time, I read through my feeds one at a time instead of scanning the “all” list in chronological order.  Shortly after that post, however, I switched to scanning the all list, simply because I was overwhelmed with the volume.

The upshot of this change is that I only read a very small fraction of what comes through my reader.  I really have no idea what sort of filters my brain is applying, but I’m mostly marking “all as read” even when not.  A few things have caught my attention recently, such as the discussion on Trulia’s linking and SEO strategies and Doc Searls’ post on user control over data.  Otherwise, the feeds pouring into my reader haven’t been penetrating my new, pretty strenuous filter.

Is this because the real estate blogosphere is getting boring or old in its infancy, or has my attention just waned or shifted?  I’m not sure but I think I’m not alone.

Whoa, check it out, our little niche hit the New York Times today.  They call it M.L.S., which I find funny, but most likely is correct.  Anyway, on to the article.  I wonder if Bob Hale knew they would start the article like this:

The triple threat of a weak market, legal pressure and increasing competition has compelled real estate professionals to offer their information more freely online, putting cracks in a walled garden of data that stood strong while the industry enjoyed its breakaway growth. It also presages an end to the days when sellers must list their homes with a broker so buyers can see them.

I also find this quote interesting:

Tom Hurdlebrink, chief executive of Northwest M.L.S., said his service’s shift [in allowing Redfin and others to display FSBO’s and non-MLS foreclosures intermingled with MLS listings] was meant to “create a balance of giving consumers what they want while promoting the best interest of our broker members.”

Bob Hale concludes:

But Mr. Hale, of Houston’s M.L.S., suspects that resistance will wane. “Their attitude has been, ‘Just because the consumer wants it doesn’t mean we have to give it to them,’ ” he said. “It’s the sure way to your demise.”

Hmmm, at some levels, this seems like a “dead if you do, dead if you don’t” conundrum, but, at the least, it poses a very good prelude to the discussion we’ll be having at our FBS Summit June 12 regarding public-facing MLS sites. We’re assembling a panel with Brian Larson from Larson/Sobotka and Marilyn Wilson from WAV, who each have written papers recently on the issue of public-facing MLS sites and have somewhat different views.  We’re also in the process of getting at least one MLS executive and one broker with differnt views.  We’ll start with some presentations and a panel moderated by me and we’re going to then follow with a speed Q&A session that I think will be really interesting.

For example, Trulia and Realtor.com are mentioned in the article as well. R.com is against FSBO’s for data quality reasons and Trulia is against them because they offend brokers.  Who has the better model here?  Does it all come back to Google in the end?  Are we in a battle for links and link love?  Because here’s the deal:  Links require public-facing sites.  Does the MLS have a role to play in that battle?  Or not?

Matt Cohen from Clareity Consulting has produced a white paper “to generate discussion on possible MLS system future features by providing a big picture view of the changing relationship of real estate professionals with each other and with consumers, the changing relationship of local and regional MLSs with each other, and to illustrate, at least at a high level, how these changes may be either enabled or reflected technically in the MLS system of the future.”

Of course, this is right up our alley here at the FBS Blog, so I’m psyched I finally feel like I have something of substance to write about again.  I’m going to focus on a couple of the ideas floated by Matt, because I think they are related and pose some of the most interesting possibilities.  (I’m definitely stretching the ideas Matt proposed to my own needs, so don’t blame him for my crazy ideas. )

Widgets-Broker Tools-RETS

Three of the ideas Matt has put forward are widgets, broker tools and expanding use of RETS.  I’m going to put my own spin on these ideas and try to relate them together as my contribution to the discussion.

I love the idea of MLS widgets and Matt’s are great examples.  What I most like about widgets is that they often rely upon APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow for other developers to modify the tools or even create their own.  For example, at the core of many widgets is the use of some sort of syndication (RSS/Atom) feed.  The data is made available through the syndication feed and the widget re-purposes or figures out a clever way to display the data.

This type of creativity relates directly to developing better broker tools.  If brokers (or their developers) had access to easy to use MLS APIs, they could develop all sorts of cool things.   RETS, of course, is an API to the MLS system but it’s not terribly easy to use and is what Robbie Paplin would say is pretty close to the metal.  In other words, RETS provides access to the data and images from the MLS system but pretty much everything else is up to the developer.

What I think is the future are RESTful MLS systems with excellent APIs that allow for all kinds of new ideas and developments by brokers to allow them to differentiate themselves.  Brokers could then develop widgets and all sorts of other cool stuff.  I think this also is the right vision for the NAR’s Gateway/TREC/[new name coming soon].  From Mark Lesswing’s comment on my last post about the Gateway, NAR can’t develop another public-facing search engine outside of Realtor.com, but I don’t think that would prohibit [New Name] from developing an API that would allow brokers to do that.  Then imagine an API that not only does listing searches but also exposes through simple requests all sorts of statistics, graphs, heat maps and what otherwise would be complex data-warehousing type queries.  Bloggers with a bit of coding skills would be in heaven, creating all sorts of market analyses for their customers and the public.

The key to all of this, however, is developing the API with an excellent permission model.  The MLS aggregation is built on cooperation among competitors and the type of creative freedom fostered by a more open API needs to work within that model of cooperation.   However, I’m convinced it can be done and that such tools would re-empower brokers to compete at an even higher level.  I’m also convinced that fostering such competition is the role of the MLS and that cooperation is a necessary part of that competition.

I’ve never written a post like this before, and it’s definitely not your typical “we’re hiring” post because one of the positions we’re looking to fill is on our Board of Directors.  See, you don’t often see that on a web site or blog, do you?

Currently, our Board of Directors consists of me, my dad (FBS’s founder) and Patty Wolter, a vice president at FBS.  I would like to completely reinvent our Board to make it stronger and more active.  Ideally from my perspective, we’d end up with five directors with at least two coming from outside FBS.  Finding a good outside director, however, has proven very challenging.  I’ve been looking for about two years and just haven’t found the right mix.  We want someone who has at least some familiarity with the MLS or real estate sales industry, but most of the people we know like that are our clients and so there are some potential conflicts in trying to bring one of them on board.  We also want someone willing to challenge us and our strategic plans, hopefully honing them further.  We’re definitely not looking for someone to just go with the flow.

One of the interesting things I’ve mentioned here before is that FBS is 100% owned by our employees through our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).  This creates an even greater need for outside directors and a strong Board.  Currently, I am the ESOP Trustee (and so vote all the shares), Chairman of the Board and the President.  That’s too many hats.  Even simple things like my compensation become complicated in this environment.  So, we’re looking to strengthen the Board and provide us some strong leadership.   Know anyone who might be interested?

We’re also looking for a code installation and testing expert.  Code management and installation is being handled now by Greg Kilwein, our Chief Software Architect, but it’s become too big of a part of his duties and so we want to create a separate position for this.  We also expect this position to provide code reviews and testing.  We currently use Surround SCM from Seapine for code management but experience with CVS or other code management systems is fine, too.  Working knowledge of Javascript and general web technologies is important, and being an expert is even better.

Lastly, we’re considering hiring some product managers.  To date, Greg and I have been driving much of the development and specification process but we now have too many developers to make that efficient and I’m turning into the Pointy Haired Boss, which doesn’t make me happy.  So, we’re considering hiring some people for me to bug with all the new features I hear our customers asking for and they can then translate those dreamy visions into nice specs for the developers (or tell me in a kind or not-so-kind way that my visions are too dreamy).  I say “considering” regarding this position, because we haven’t committed to hiring someone 100% but I’m pretty confident that if the ideal candidate came forward, we’d pull the trigger.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in any of these positions, let me know at mwurzer at gmail dot com.

Next week is the NAR Mid-Year meetings in D.C.  The FBS crew will be there and would love to meet up.  We’re having a reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Omni in the Embassy Room, East Conference Center.  Stop by for some refreshments!  Also, if you’d like to meet privately, let me know and we’ll set up a time at our suite at the Omni or we can schedule something at the trade show booth as well.

There’s a lot to talk about: new flexmls Web releases,  the FBS Summit coming up in June, public facing MLS web sites, RETS, syndication, and so much more.  I’m really looking forward to the meetings and hope to have some posts here at the FBS Blog ahead of that time.

Each morning I’m in town, I stop at my mom’s for coffee an hour before work.  Mostly we chit-chat and usually have the Today show on in the background.  Many times during our chats some question or other will come up to which we don’t know the answer and so I’ll take out my Treo and Google for the answer.  This morning, Matt Lauer posed his annual question about where in the world he’ll be next with a riddle:  An anagram of a synonym of a homophone of an even prime number.  My mom quickly said, “see if that thing knows the answer.”  I was skeptical but to indulge her curiousity I queried for “prime number homophone” and the first two results in the response were pages from Yahoo! Answers, with exactly what we wanted to know: Laos, is where in the world Matt Lauer will be next.

We both were amazed by this: Within an hour of Mr. Lauer posing the riddle from Amsterdam,  someone from who knows where typed the riddle into Yahoo!, someone (many, actually) else answered the question, and Google indexed the result, allowing me to find it a mere minutes later on my phone from my mother’s living room in Fargo, ND.  Wisdom of crowds, web 2.0, or whatever else you want it call it, that’s incredibly cool.

Go read this to glimpse why the web is changing us.

Glenn Roberts of Inman News has a great article about MLS policy on short sales today that I expect many of our clients will find useful or at least interesting.

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On a completely separate note, posting has been light here at the FBS Blog lately, mostly because nothing has been piquing my interest.  I’ve been busy, too, of course, but that usually helps me post more, not less.  Anyway, I suspect posting frequency will pick up again soon.  In the meantime, read the excellent Inman article and let me know if you have any comments.