LPS targets big players with open MLS platform
The fifth-largest multiple listing service in the nation has rolled out a brand-new MLS system from real estate and mortgage technology company Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS).
The new system, reInsight MLS, is tailored to the needs of MLSs with more than 5,000 members, the company said in an announcement Friday.
Georgia MLS, which has more than 25,000 members, is the first to launch reInsight. Based in Tucker, Ga., GAMLS has nearly 54,000 active listings and more than 1 million off-market listings in its database.
GAMLS has been an LPS customer for more than 15 years and collaborated with LPS to build reInsight, according to Rich Lull, managing director for LPS MLS Solutions.
Up until last month, GAMLS had had LPS' RE/Xplorer MLS system, which is now fully retired as an LPS product. Three years ago, when looking for a replacement for RE/Xplorer, GAMLS agreed to work with LPS to build a new, customizable system for large MLSs on the condition that GAMLS "would have as much influence on the product as we do, (and) also that it would become a viable product for us to sell into the marketplace. They did not want to end up with" the only version of an MLS system, Lull said.
LPS realized that "to really meet the needs of the next 10 years, we're going to have to start with a blank piece of paper and build a whole new MLS system," he said.
The result is a highly customizable parcel-based database that integrates public records information with MLS data and includes a comparative market analysis (CMA) tool that uses both. The system is an open platform, which means it allows the integration of third-party products.
"Most of the MLS systems in the past have been monolithic. The world has changed within the last 10 years where the MLS vendors are not that innovative. So much innovation has been coming into the market that the real estate agents need. To be fair, you need to design a system that supports best of breed," Lull said.
For example, it could be that another company's CMA tool is better than the one embedded in reInsight or that an MLS wants to incorporate a showing management system, he said. Whatever the product, the platform's open architecture enables third parties to tightly integrate their tools within the MLS system so that users see the products as part of the same system.
ReInsight also offers a map-centric interface that allows users to work from a single view without having to toggle between different screens.
