Houston Realtors Await MLXchange Proposal

HOUSTON-The Houston Association of Realtors may eventually test Interealty’s new MLXchange transaction management system, but claims that a tryout has been scheduled are premature, according to Sean Dauphine.

An Interealty press release has claimed that HAR had selected MLXchange for a pilot program. “We haven’t even received a proposal from Interealty,” Dauphine told GlobeSt.com. “After we receive it, it must be appraised by our MLS task force, and if it passes that, it must be approved by the board. It’s a one- to three-month process.”HAR members already have access to the iProperty.com “Chorus” system. “It’s the only one that has met our criteria and received board approval,” emphasizes Dauphine. “But, we are expecting that proposal from Interealty. We may wind up with three or four systems for our members to choose from.”

Interealty did use a HAR database of 25,000 active home listings in demonstrating MLXchange at the San Francisco meeting of the National Association of Realtors last weekend. Houston realtors may be the first organization in the nation to try out the new flagship product, but that remains to be seen, Dauphine says.

More than a year in development, MLXchange will definitely be offered to the HAR as a pilot program. HAR, with more than 12,000 members, is one of the largest MLSs in the nation.

HAR is far from reluctant to check out the new system. “We’re extremely excited about the alliance between Interealty and (Microsoft’s) HomeAdvisor Technologies, and the combined capabilities they may eventually bring to our members,” says Frankie Jefferson, chairman of the board of the Houston Association of Realtors.

During the past year, Interealty.com says, it has quietly been executing an expansion of its menu of Web-based tools and services to give real estate professionals what they need to be productive and successful. Interealty’s says its strategy has included targeted acquisitions and business partnerships, including the buyout of GTE Enterprise Initiative’s Real Estate Unit and a strategic alliance with Microsoft’s HomeAdvisor Technologies Inc. New-product innovations have led to the Interealty.com’s development of a premier Web-based MLS customer management and transaction platform, MLXchange.

“MLXchange is built on proven technology from the likes of such world-class technologycompanies as Interealty and HomeAdvisor Technologies, whose Realty Desktop technology has been incorporated into MLXchange,” says Michael Harris, Interealty’s president and CEO.