Michael Wurzer Once again, Gary Thomas made his “Gateway” speech at another NAR convention and unleashed more speculation (behind Inman’s paywall) about what it really means. I’ve written about this before. I was pleased as punch, though, to see Brian Boero from 1000 Watt Consulting pick up on the vagueness and uncertainty in the supposed Gateway proposal and how that’s bad for the industry:
I know it’s early. And there are people smarter than me working on this. But everything I have heard and read to date makes this project seem completely unhinged from any sort of strategy.
It reflects uncertainty, not clarity.
Right on, Brian. I also agree that the Realogy IDX project being worked on by eNeighborhoods is a huge deal, likely to reverberate through the industry for years to come. I had dinner with Dan Woolley (eNeighborhoods’ Senior VP of Technology) in Vegas and suggested to him (though Dan certainly needs no suggestions from me) that, with RE/MAX and Realogy on their IDX platform, the next logical step would be to do a listing maintenance module and then use the weight of those organizations to force the MLSs to accept a “standard” listing. The benefits to this are obvious — single entry and pocket listings on their branded portals, plus the final wresting of control from MLSs, which would forever after be subservient to those brands. What do you think, is this just another misty idea like the Gateway? Or does it have some legs?