Designing for Resilience Project: RMLS

May 14, 2021

gallisk

Kiele Schneckloth

Resilience Challenge

What barriers do real estate buyers and sellers face -in Portland, Oregon – that prevent them from having a clear, easy and streamlined real estate experience?

Regional Multiple Listing Services (RMLS) is a database for realtors located throughout Oregon and Southern Washington. RMLS employs developers, graphic designers, product managers, trainers, financial officers, HR admin, communications specialists, front desk admin, customer service and data specialists to serve their current audience of real estate agents and brokers. RMLS currently exists within the traditional real estate market, but clients of realtors are beginning to follow a non-traditional real estate market flow. Buyers and sellers now have more options than ever before, and to thrive in the new markets, RMLS must adapt with their environment.

Project Video

Baseline SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

Management of listings, which ensures quality
Client feels safer about the risk-level
Has more control over their listing
Listings appear on all sites, such as Zillow
Constant assistance with listings 24/7
Listers can create personalized reports for their sellers and buyers
Management of listings, which ensures quality
Only licensed real estate agents can list. Listings are audited by Data Accuracy Specialists. RMLS monitors listings and alerts listing agents of abnormal changes.

Weaknesses:

Not property-owner facing. Only visible to subscribers
No nationwide databases. RMLS is specific to Oregon and southern Washington
Not-for-profit – Board of Directors make all decisions
Change is slow to be approved and implemented
A part of the traditional real estate system, which is quickly becoming outdated
Not property-owner facing. Only visible to subscribers. RMLS’s subscribers are brokers and real estate agents.

Opportunities:

Property-owner-facing database
Leverage the benefits of using such an accurate system
Leverage the benefits of human real estate agents
Create checks and balances among the listings
Allow subscribers to have a larger voice on changes
Become a for-profit company
Work with third parties
Strengthen partnerships with other MLSs within RESO
Create a property-owner-facing database to view listings. Allow them to have more control over their listings and view statistics about how they’re doing on the market
Create a property-owner-facing database of real estate agents, lawyers, inspectors, brokers, and contractors. Some of this data is already in the database, while others would need to be added.
Leverage the benefits of using such an accurate system.
Leverage the benefits of human real estate agents. Property-owners are more likely to get a better deal when selling through an agent.
Create checks and balances among the listings
Allow subscribers to have a larger voice on changes
Become a for-profit company so decisions could be made to advance the company and grow
Work with third parties, such as Zillow: so that RMLS provides listings and receives a portion of their cut in return.
Strengthen partnerships with other MLSs within Reso, the Real Estate Standards Organization, to expand listing options for clients and ensure consistency.

Threats:

iBuyers
Other MLSs
Online real estate companies
Companies leveraging AI
Dependent on success of realtors

Mapping

To better understand the buyers’ and the sellers’ experience throughout the current real estate processes, the research team created systems maps to better understand and help the personas.