It’s been a year of transition for a small army of southwest Missouri Realtors.
A move to consolidate the regional multiple listing services wrapped up Aug. 4, when Monett-based Southwest Missouri Board of Realtors formally joined the Southern Missouri Regional MLS.
A year earlier, the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors committed to joining SoMo Regional after vetting the partnership of regional MLS groups into a “one-stop shop” for housing data in the region. The consolidation brought together seven organizations utilizing five multilist platforms.
Jessica Hickok, GSBOR’s association executive and the SoMo MLS general manager, said Springfield Realtors have been operating under the new Flexmls system since April 28, when three of the seven boards came online at once.
The new regional MLS represents nearly 2,600 Realtors from the Arkansas line to north of Bolivar and West Plains to Neosho, Hickok said.
Current SoMo Regional President Jeff Kester, owner and broker of Re/Max House of Brokers in Springfield, said the change to Flexmls from Rapattoni MLS after 14 years has had its challenges.
“I wouldn’t use ‘difficult’ or ‘easy.’ It’s change. It can be both or neither of those at any given moment,” Kester said. “Nothing is seamless, but it’s about having an ability to adapt and learn.”
He said, on the whole, his Re/Max agents have adapted well and gotten through the transition by working together and asking questions when needed.
Included in the new system are GSBOR, Ozarks Board of Realtors, Ozark Trail Board of Realtors, Newton/McDonald County Board of Realtors, Southwest Missouri Board of Realtors, Tri-Lakes Board of Realtors and the West Plains Board of Realtors. The one holdout in southwest Missouri was the Ozark Gateway Association of Realtors in Joplin. Last year, Ozark Gateway Executive Kim Cox said the organization supported the consolidation but couldn’t afford to lose the money it generates by providing its own MLS system.
Implementation of Flexmls, a product created by Fargo, N.D.-based FBS, has come with a few expected headaches. Hickok said there has been a learning curve, particularly with input forms.
“Springfield doesn’t necessarily deal with boat docks and boat slips, but the agents down in Branson do, so we had to input that into the listing data input form,” Hickok said, adding representatives of the seven groups worked together in committee to develop a single MLS input-data form. “Adapting to one form was probably the biggest challenge because naturally fields moved around and people didn’t know where to click or what to do.”
Hickok said each individual board sets different prices for its members to use the regional system, with prices in the Springfield area remaining around where they were last year – about $70 per month per user. But the system is saving money for those agents who before utilized multiple systems, such as those selling in Springfield and Branson, Hickok said.
“With one database, they only have to pay one MLS fee,” she said.
Another plus, Hickok said, is the statistics should be more consistent from board to board.
“You don’t have the fragmented databases with data coming from all different areas. When you have a uniform set of input fields, you can get stronger statistics for southwest Missouri,” she said.
Hickok also said mobile functions of the system can meet the needs of agents on the go.
“A lot of times agents felt chained to their desktops in the office in order to read reports or get listing printouts,” Hickok said.
Kester said the mobile uses have won him over.
“The day I fell in love with Flex was in testing the new system out with one of my agents. We role-played a deal where a buyer wanted to find out about a house,” Kester said. “I was able to look up all the details on the house. I was able to scroll through the photos. I was able to get the disclosures and send them to the buyer. I was able to contact the listing agent all at the push of a button on my phone. For an agent that’s out working with buyers in the real world every day, that mobile platform can be a real lifesaver.”[[In-content Ad]]
