The Southern California Multiple Listing Service (SoCalMLS) and the Southland Regional Association of Realtors (SRAR) today announced an agreement that will form the second-largest multiple listing service in the nation.
Under the agreement, SRAR, which currently operates CRIS-Net Regional MLS, has contracted SoCalMLS to provide MLS systems and services to its 15,000 members. SoCalMLS, based in Anaheim, is California’s largest MLS with 40,000 subscribers. The combined membership base of 55,000 will be second nationally only to Metropolitan Regional Information System (MRIS), which covers a large area including Washington, D.C., and much of the states of Virginia and Maryland.
“We had two objectives in looking for a new multiple listing service provider. One was to provide our members with state-of-the-art technology. The second was to expand our members’ access to information so they can better serve their clients. SoCalMLS meets both objectives,” said Steve White, president of SRAR. “SoCalMLS has been providing unparalleled service to its members for 13 years and we are confident our members will enjoy the same. By combining databases, members of both organizations will have access to far more information than by remaining separate.”
SRAR’s MLS currently covers the San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita Valley area. SoCalMLS covers much of southern Los Angeles County and all of Orange County.
“This is the logical next step to providing the real estate professionals of Southern California with seamless access to a much larger data base of listing information,” said SoCalMLS President David Silver-Westrick. “Our goal is to continually improve the products and services available to our members who will, in turn, be better able to serve their clients, the buying and selling public.”
In the first quarter of 2007 the SRAR database of listings will be merged onto the SoCalMLS Tempo MLS system, a product of First American MLS Solutions, a subsidiary of the First American Corp.
“The real estate industry is changing and we, at the MLS level, need to meet those changes. Brokerages continue to consolidate, individual market areas expand and the consumer is demanding more information,” said Jim Link, chief executive officer of SRAR. “Our partnership with SoCalMLS is a giant leap forward in our quest to provide the products, services and coverage necessary to accommodate the changing landscape.”
Both Link and Russ Bergeron, CEO of SoCalMLS, said they are hopeful that this partnership will lead to further consolidation in the MLS industry.
SoCalMLS and SRAR are charter members of the Southern California MLS Alliance — a consortium of multiple listing services serving over 100,000 real estate professionals via a hybrid peer-to-peer network of MLS databases. “Our involvement in the MLS Alliance has taught us that by working together we can enhance the professionalism of our members,” Bergeron said. “We hope that our partnership with SRAR will be a catalyst for promoting more synergistic growth throughout the region.”
Founded in 1920, the Van Nuys-based Southland Regional Association of Realtors is a local trade association comprised of more than 12,000 Realtor members and 15,000 MLS members serving the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. SRAR is one of the largest local associations in the nation.
SoCalMLS serves Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
