Bright MLS and Ocusell, a multi-MLS listing management platform, have formed a joint venture to co-develop and license advanced technology solutions and services for brokers, agents and MLSs nationwide. Products are expected to be available later this year.
Through the joint venture, brokers and agents will gain access to tools designed to manage and analyze listings, drive affiliated services business and serve clients more effectively from the familiarity of their own broker portal if they choose. MLSs, according to Bright MLS and Ocusell, will now have a choice to adopt proven, scalable technology solutions, developed by industry leaders focused on increased flexibility, boosting reliability and making it easier for their subscribers to create new listings.
“Our joint venture with Ocusell is part of our vision of breaking down barriers to create a smarter, more efficient marketplace, where brokers have the tools they need to compete as the landscape evolves,” said Brian Donnellan, CEO of Bright MLS in a statement. “We are working together to demonstrate how the MLS can be part of the solution, helping to reduce redundant technologies and make it easier for MLS subscribers to work across platforms, and we’re offering other MLSs the opportunity to join us in challenging the status quo.”
Aiming to leverage each company’s technology and complementary relationships, the partnership will initially focus on broker and MLS-facing tools to solve challenges associated with doing business in multiple markets and across multiple MLS platforms with different rules.
“We’ve developed some tech in this area, so how can we be proactive?” asks Ted Mucellin, Bright MLS’s chief strategy and operations officer. “How can we search out problems with Hayden (Rieveschl, founder and CEO of Ocusell) to clients of his or clients of both instead of having to create a whole other thing that sort of competes needlessly in the space? And so the idea that we have engineers building AI products around compliance, we’re not going to double build what he’s already built. We can keep them building something new that just grows the offering.”
Notably, the partnership will incorporate Ocusell’s List+ tool for brokers and (ETLs) into Bright Listing Manager, the direct-entry tool for MLSs within the new suite of Bright Solutions SaaS products. This will enable brokers and MLSs to more easily onboard new customers across multiple systems and products, simplifying listing entry across multiple MLSs, while ensuring all listings are delivered and published in each client’s primary system of record across multiple geographies.
“Through this venture we are proving that a unified MLS vision is not just a concept, but a reality,” said Rieveschl. “Listings are the oil of the real estate business. By working with the nation’s largest MLSs and brokerages, we are eliminating friction points and empowering brokerages with a single, intelligent process for distributing all their critical listing data simultaneously across multiple MLSs. This is the future of the industry, and it’s happening now.”
Both sides emphasize that their efforts are intended to support and innovate within the industry, providing cost-effective tools and leveling the playing field for MLSs. Compliance is one aspect for which it made sense for the two companies to join forces.
Speaking to RISMedia, Rieveschl added that while the MLS landscape may not be changing dramatically in the next few years, the technology employed by brokerages will be.
“I think it’s a scenario where a rising tide raises all ships,” he said. “In adopting the one-to-many mindset, there’s a lot of profit centers that open up for MLSs. Interesting fact: 70% of New York brokers also have licenses in New Jersey but don’t list in Jersey MLSs. We now make that possible. We can present brokers with options, essentially bundles of MLSs that say, ‘We understand that you have a license in New Jersey and you’re only listening into MLS A and B. What about C and D, maximizing your exposure in that given market, and maybe it’s only $10 to $20 more a month.”
Mucellin spoke about how the new products will be marketed.
“While the joint venture will allow us to support each other and to cross sell and to sort of cross license technology, both brands are going to continue to exist,” he said. “And I think they speak probably to different markets, the different products. And so who knows what the future holds. But for the foreseeable future, we plan to keep the brands and the products as separate offerings where the companies are supporting each other.”
For more information, visit https://www.brightmls.com/.
