Realtors Property Resource LLC has signed up California Regional Multiple Listing Service as a partner, bringing the number of MLSs and Realtor associations participating in the national property database to 235.
There are about 900 MLSs in the U.S., but RPR has licensing agreements with several of the nation’s largest. All told, RPR says it now has agreements in place with MLSs representing more than 380,000 Realtors, or roughly 38 percent of the National Association of Realtor’s 1 million members.
Pomona, Calif.-based California Regional MLS is the product of last year’s merger of Multi-Regional MLS and the California Association of Realtors’ fledgling statewide MLS system, CalREDD. California Regional MLS serves 23 Realtor associations statewide, with more than 32,000 members.
Other large MLSs that have signed on to contribute listings data to RPR include Anaheim, Calif.-based SoCalMLS (33,600 members); Phoenix-based ARMLS (32,500 members); Boston’s MLS PIN (28,000 members); the Miami Association of Realtors (24,000 members); Denver’s MetroList (19,000 members); and San Jose, Calif.-based MLS Listings Inc. (18,860 members).
All six of those MLSs are live on the RPR system, along with 92 others that have launched to date.
A NAR subsidiary, RPR got off the ground in November 2009, and the first MLSs went live the following September.
Realtors whose MLSs haven’t signed on to the project will eventually be able to access public property records, but not historical listing data, by signing on to RPR using their NRDS (National Realtors Database System) ID. That capability is expected to be ready in fourth-quarter 2011.
RPR is partnering with Lender Processing Services, MLSs, and other data providers to build a national property database that includes tax assessment and public property records; records on mortgages, liens and foreclosures; school boundary data; flood maps; aerial and geocoded imagery; and demographic information.
In markets where RPR has partnerships with MLSs, it will aggregate that data with active and historical listings data.
RPR says having access to active and historical listings data will allow it to generate automated property valuations using a "Realtor valuation model" that the company claims will be more accurate than automated valuation models (AVMs) that rely primarily on public property records.
The company’s business model depends on generating revenue by selling valuation data and other analytics products to lenders, investors and government agencies who want to keep track of trends in local housing markets.
Property information and analytics provider CoreLogic is also licensing data from MLSs through its Partner InfoNet program, and last month began offering a competing product that combines public property records with listings data.
CoreLogic said last month that it had licensing agreements with MLSs and Realtor Associations representing more than 140,000 real estate professionals and more than 400,000 listings.
The company will pay participating MLSs a share of the proceeds generated by the sale of the analytics reports, and allow them to offer new valuation products like CoreLogic’s RealAVM to members.
