Select the right club for a sand trap?

Open source API and MLS Systems.
As you've probably come to understand, I'm not a fan of “one size fits all” solutions. Custom, personalized solutions can be achieved with today's technology and when they're not achieved it represents a choice NOT to pursue excellence. It's important to realize that excellence is defined, not by the provider of the service, but the recipient. The real estate industry, from small offices to state and national trade organizations, suffers chronic episodes of delusional narcissism in which they seemingly discover, yet again, just how excellent they are. These usually end when the public yells loudly from a distant ridge "hey, we're over here, remember us!".

From the MLS vendors perspective, excellence is often defined as anything that's just a little bit better than the competition's. This brings to mind the story of the two men (or women, if you prefer) who were out hiking and spied a grizzly bear, a very hungry grizzly bear. One said to the other—I'm scared! I don't see how we can outrun that grizzly! The other hiker calmly replied, I really feel no fear, because I know that I can outrun you and that's all it's gonna take. In a real estate context the punch line doesn't ring true, because the public is up on the ridge watching the proceedings and hoping for something far more creative and fulfilling than a short foot race followed by a brief predator/prey interaction.

For most of the history of MLS systems the front end portion of the application was what it was. You liked it or not. With the rise of Wikinomics and increasing use of open source architecture the possibility exists for front end applications to blossom into a rich diversity of forms. Using a sports analogy, you wouldn't play golf with just one club, so why should you perform MLS searches with just one front end application. Some systems do have quick search capabilities, but there are a wide diversity of different types of searches for different Buyers, different types of properties, different statuses, different analyses etc. There's also the issue of having applications designed for Buyers or Sellers to use on the public portal of the MLS database. Some people are techie geeks and some can barely turn a computer on, why the same front end?

So, where might these alternative front end applications come from? MLS vendors are busy keeping one (small) step ahead of their competition, but third party developers could write them with ease, IF there was a profit motive. Large franchises or even multi office independents could hire a programmer and produce the latest and greatest--only available through them. There are obstacles. Most vendor front ends are not open source code-proprietary stuff abounds.

One scenario would have an Ap Store (sound like iPhone??) associated with the MLS Home Page. Users could pay a licence fee to use an alternative Ap or Aps. A counter on the Ap store web page could show statistics regarding the usage of each Ap, ie what's hot and what's not.

That would create an incentive to improve the Ap (new versions) and build variations on popular themes. This sounds a lot like the Apple iPhone model—but there's a huge problem—you need customer base to make the profit incentive work. Shortly after introduction iPhone aps had 2 million potential consumers. Most MLS systems, even the biggest, have a 100,000-200,000 user base.

Interestingly CalREDD has an open API, and uses Adobe Flex, for which there are MANY programmers. One of the advantages touted early on in calREDD's development was the capability to work with many browsers and to allow development of alternative front end applications. So far, the prospect of achieving a customer base sufficient to attract third party developers is a faint glimmer.

Been working on a major question regarding the purpose of MLS Systems, the real estate industry (and life itself?)the past couple days. I tend to get philosophical around the holidays, and near my birthday (62nd today).

Here's the question and I'll dive into the implications in the next post.

Is the real estate industry a SALES industry or a SERVICE industry.

This MEGA question should have come up earlier, but it's one that few really want to confront. Is the real estate industry defined and measured by numbers of SALES or is it a SERVICE industry intent on achieving and delivering a quality of service to principals consistent with “fiduciary duty” (whatever that means--more on that later too). The performance metrics, advertising banners and public opinion polls lean toward a SALES definition. The law clearly leans in the direction of service and fiduciary duty. Can it possibly be both?

More to the point of this series of blogs--what does that mean to MLS systems, other real estate data services and their design--if anything at all?