Multiple listing service technology provider Solid Earth will soon integrate a financial planning tool from startup Planwise into its Spring real estate platform, allowing consumers to gauge the affordability of listings they find on public-facing MLS websites powered by Spring.
Planwise allows prospective homebuyers and investors to enter their income, spending and debts to see and compare how particular properties would fit into their financial goals.
Solid Earth’s Spring platform offers a common interface for consumers and real estate professionals, providing each the same home search experience but separate logins that give real estate pros access to their MLS’s back end.
Personal and financial information that Planwise users enter remains private and is not shared with the MLS websites that incorporate the tool or their member agents. Affordability and investment scores abstracted from that data are shared with agents, however, in order to help agents better understand which properties are likely to suit individual clients. This allows for a more customized search experience for clients and better lead management for agents, the companies said.
Sample screen shot of Planwise integration into Spring platform
“We believe everyone should have the ability to make better financial decisions — on the Internet — where many of these decisions are now made,” said Planwise founder Vincent Turner in a statement.
Integration with the Spring platform is set for January, and Spring clients will see the change immediately, Bill Fowler, Solid Earth’s chief marketing officer and vice president of new business, told Inman News.
“Consumer-facing services are driving a lot of the coolest innovation in the industry. Planwise brings such an obvious added value to the search process. We’re really happy to be working with them,” Fowler said in a statement.
Huntsville, Ala.-based Solid Earth provides services to 23 local Realtor associations in 10 states representing about 45,000 members.
San Francisco-based Planwise struck a similar deal to integrate its tool into the broker and agent websites of real estate tech firm Tribus in September. Planwise launched in 2011 and just completed the National Association of Realtors’ tech accelerator program REach.
