by David Chapman
Staff Writer
The technology and responsibilities are always evolving and growing at the Multiple Listing Service.
This year, Ron Stephan and the Northeast Florida MLS will continue upgrading and implementing new features to help benefit the real estate community. MLS is a large computerized system that lists available properties that are for sale, with the intention of spreading information easier to make the buying-and-selling process easier.
“We’re doing a lot of things here,” said Stephan, the executive vice president of MLS. “We have a pretty full agenda.”
One major point on that agenda is the unveiling of the new MLS Advantage system, slated to launch next month. Advantage is a stand-alone system that aims to provide brokers and agents property listing data from listings in other MLS systems and to provide more information altogether. Brokers and agents will be able to see private remarks and all details on properties outside their area due to the sharing capacity of the system, as well as the potential commission. This enables them to provide better information to customers in their area that might be looking in other areas.
Other benefits include guaranteed compensation, the ability to provide detailed tax data for several counties and the ability to e-mail prospects information within the Advantage system.
“Hopefully, we’ll be one of the first ones on it,” said Stephan.
For the time being, MLS is estimating the hardware capacity and resources needed to fully support such an ambitious new system.
“With more than 60 MLS offices in the state, if we start getting data from all of them, the systems might not be able to handle it,” said Stephan.
Stephan anticipates the Advantage system, being a stand-alone unit from regular MLS, will cause some headaches with inquisitive brokers and agents who won’t initially differentiate the two, as well as some continued support issues due to taking more information.
MLS has already implemented one upgrade, a new feature for some listed properties that enables the public to schedule a showing via the Internet.
The system upgrades and enhancements that occur on MLS systems twice a year will still continue.
A much-anticipated feature, said Stephan, is a major project that includes new mapping for Northeast Florida. The always-changing lines for listings that differentiate things like roads and borders will be replaced by a more reliable solid grid system. The grids will be more efficient and create less confusion.
“It’s going to save everyone headaches, the buyers and the sellers,” said Stephan, adding that a major complaint that people have voiced is the difficulty in knowing which areas are what under the current system.
Also slated for this year are improved aerial images that will provide greater details on each property as well as a feature called the “transaction desk” which is meant to eliminate paperwork or the agent and office associated with home buying altogether. All information would end up on a CD-ROM.
“This is the way you’d do it if you were starting from scratch today,” said Stephan.
While all these features are on the table, Stephan also noted that even during some rough stretches across Florida, MLS membership in Northeast Florida is still strong and continuing to grow in numbers and responsibility, which creates a whole new problem for Stephan and MLS: finding a bigger building.
“We’re out of space,” he said. “When you have 7,000 members and you’re growing every day, it just requires more time and effort.”
With things like new systems, improved mapping, the search for a larger building and increasing members, MLS in 2007, as Stephan said, has a pretty full agenda.