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Aligned Showings, a showing scheduling tool owned by six of the largest multiple listing services in the U.S., has launched in its second MLS, UtahRealEstate.com.
UthaRealEstate.com, the Beehive State’s largest MLS with about 20,000 subscribers, rolled out Aligned Showings on Monday as a free member benefit to its subscribers. An announcement describes Aligned Showings as “the first MLS-owned showing software on the market.”
The company that offers the software is MLS Aligned, which is owned by six MLSs with about 150,000 subscribers combined. Arizona Regional MLS, Metro MLS in Wisconsin, MLSListings in Silicon Valley, RMLS in Oregon and UtahRealEstate.com founded MLS Aligned in 2018. BeachesMLS became the company’s sixth owner in 2021.
“Aligned Showings gives our members a tool that is easy to use, modern in design, and focused on the core aspects of showing properties,” said Brad Bjelke, CEO of UtahRealEstate.com, in a statement.
“It allows for interactivity between the listing agent, showing agent, and the homeowner, and it simplifies the calendaring of appointments. With the software being owned by MLS Aligned, we know that all future changes and enhancements will be laser-focused on the needs of our members and their clients.”
Brad Bjelke
Aligned Showings first launched in beta in MLSListings’ Silicon Valley market last year and has now also officially launched there, according to Bjelke. But UtahRealEstate.com is the first large rollout with “deeply embedded” integration between the MLS and the software, he told Inman via email.
“We built a new step in our listing input and listing edit wizard that gives listing-by-listing choice to our members on showing options,” Bjelke said.
“For example, they can choose to use Aligned Showings, ShowingTime (our current other provider), or to not use a showing service. Their choices will control what buttons show up in the scheduling section of our MLS.
“The flexibility we added allows us to offer limitless choices in the future, and it gives our members the ability to move from software to software without issue, or to remove any showing software should they feel it doesn’t work for an individual listing, etc. We also put many of these features into our MLS mobile app as well.”
In May 2021, in a bid to create its own showing service, MLS Aligned acquired the technology assets of RE Agent Solutions LLC, which include the software and technology behind Agent Inbox, a real estate messaging and showing platform. Agent Inbox earned a 4 out of 5 rating from Inman tech reviewer Craig Rowe in December 2016.
That deal came amid a tumultuous time for the showing management industry after the announcement of Zillow’s acquisition of ShowingTime in February. Up until that point, ShowingTime had been a popular platform among agents, but after the acquisition news, many expressed concerns about how Zillow might handle their data among other things. (Zillow has vowed to keep ShowingTime’s privacy policies in place.)
Since then, numerous showing management companies told Inman they were experiencing a tsunami of interest from brokerages, MLSs and agents. MLS Aligned’s new service is among those that have emerged in response to that growing demand.
