Brokers understand that our success ultimately comes from delivering great service and solid guidance to consumers. However, for years, brokers have been frustrated by how consumers have been confused, and perhaps even misled, by online advertising in real estate.
In working toward a solution, brokers developed the Fair Display Guidelines and asked sites in our space to comply with these best practices. They refused, generally because their investors wanted them to continue their practices to extract more revenue from our industry.
So, we accepted the invitation of a handful of MLSs to co-found an additional option for consumer search. This new choice would clearly and quickly connect consumers to their best source of information about a specific property: the listing agent and brokerage.
Imagine that. Your listing, your lead!
Brokers could do something even better for their agents: provide leads to them without an additional charge for each. And, even better, you wouldn’t have to pay a referral fee for your leads.
That’s what we imagined in creating the Broker Public Portal (BPP), known to consumers as Homesnap. Today, BPP, in partnership with more than 200 MLSs coast to coast, is delivering what brokers want from their MLS.
The public-facing brand of the BPP is called Homesnap, because the BPP partnered with the highest-rated real estate mobile app in the App Store: Homesnap.
Consumers can search for homes using the top-ranked app—and, better yet, they get great service by instantly connecting to the expert on the home for sale. Plus, the Homesnap Pro app is the most popular mobile app among real estate agents.
And Homesnap delivers both a best-in-class app and a great website option at Homesnap.com.
The growth of the Broker Public Portal has skyrocketed. Today, more than one million real estate professionals have access to Homesnap. Consumers can find more than two million properties for sale on Homesnap, translating into millions of fee-free leads!
The BPP is off to an amazing start, but we still need to reach every real estate market.
Brokers and agents can help. Find out if your MLS has signed up for the Broker Public Portal. Already, one-third of all MLSs have committed to the BPP, but your MLS may not yet have stepped up to deliver this amazing option to you.
With the recent launch of the All-New Homesnap Pro, you gain head-turning improvements that will help you grow your business, such as built-in machine learning that powers a no-extra-cost “Likelihood To List” score for off-market properties.
Broker Public Portal is delivering what brokers, agents and consumers want. Urge your MLS to support you and your customers by turning on Homesnap and the Broker Public Portal in your market as soon as possible.
Connect your MLS staff with Eugene Gligor—egligor@homesnap.com—and make sure you gain access to this powerful tool, all-new for 2020.
For more information, please visit www.brokerpublicportal.com.
Craig Cheatham is president and CEO of The Realty Alliance, an invitation-only network of the largest full-service real estate firms in North America comprising more than 130,000 agents.
