Why Us?

A future with FBS and Flexmls is ripe with opportunity. Let's dig in.

A future with FBS and Flexmls is ripe with opportunity. Let's dig in.

We want to respond to your feedback that the user interface in Flexmls needs updating and that it may not be different enough from Rapattoni to justify switching. We hear your feedback loud and clear. Currently, we have a project underway to update the Flexmls user interface.

Upcoming Updates

We are pleased to report that we’re already far enough along with it to ensure that it will be complete before your MLS goes live with Flexmls. This refresh makes the style, colors, and navigation flows consistent throughout the system, while preserving the efficiency and flexibility the system already provides. To the right is a short montage of several of the pages we’ve already updated to give you an idea of what’s to come.

Innovations to Save Time and Increase Accuracy

At the same time as this refresh work is ongoing, FBS also is innovating listing entry in several ways. This work goes well beyond an updated user interface and focuses on new ways to save agents time and increase data accuracy and depth, all of which improve the long-term value of the MLS database. As the page linked below outlines, we’re very focused on leveraging mobile technology for listing entry both to enable agents to enter and edit listings wherever they are, and also to leverage the amazing amount of data phones make it possible to capture and validate.

FBS has led the industry in using mobile scanning technology to improve listing creation. This will not only improve the accuracy of existing listing data, but also enable agents to create new media such as floor plans that are highly valued by consumers. We’re also reducing the amount of time agents spend on listing entry and increasing accuracy by enabling collaboration with photographers, team members, and others, as well as leveraging new outside data sources (e.g., GIS data layers, HOA information, green fields, and more) to increase data validation, accuracy, and depth.

Below is a feature we recently released to enable a photography network Beaches MLS has started. Once the photographer is selected, they receive a notification and can add media to a listing. This makes it easy for the photographer, reduces the need for the agent or their staff to upload the photos, and ensures security and permissions of the MLS are followed.

 

FBS Co-Creates Flexmls With Our Customers

FBS’s development process and roadmap is focused on delivering outcomes important to our customers. We know from four decades of creating software for MLSs and real estate agents that you want to get in and out of the MLS system as fast as possible. You need to enter your listing quickly and accurately. You need to search for listings with as few clicks as possible so you can send them to your client, create a CMA, or run some market stats. You need the listings sent to your customers to be mobile-friendly, easy-to-read, and engaging with all types of rich media.

Mobile Moves

The user interface is critical to these outcomes, certainly, but FBS also understands that we can help our customers even more by reducing the amount of data they have to enter themselves. This is truly a case where less is more for users. If we can leverage mobile scanning and machine learning to collect data about the property without the agent or their staff having to type it in, everyone benefits. If our APIs enable more efficient integration with third-party software you’re already using to reduce duplicate entry, everyone wins.

Future-Focused

This is just one example of many as to why it is important for your MLS technology partner to be focused on outcomes that make your work lives better rather than just building new features. After all, if we add ten more features with brand new UIs that now take more clicks or don’t improve your life, what’s the point? Yet, many software vendors get caught up in exactly that kind of feature war, where it’s about a checklist comparison rather than whether the features actually benefit users. This is what FBS means by co-creating software with our customers.

FBS + Cincy MLS

Our only purpose in building something new is to make it better for you. Our Product and Engineering Teams do this by talking to users every week and constantly getting feedback on what’s important to them. This level of engagement requires substantial investment in understanding and listening to our customers, which is both possible because of, and also the result of, FBS becoming the fastest growing MLS vendor over the last decade. FBS is constantly reinvesting both in our employee-owners and in our customers to ensure that our software is a platform that will enable our customers to grow and serve their members at the highest levels, not just this year but for the next forty years.

Are Flexmls and Rapattoni Too Similar to Justify Switching?

FBS has transitioned 22 Rapattoni MLSs representing 53,000 users, and those MLSs chose Flexmls because the system is more efficient and built on technology that enables long-term innovation. On the surface, the two systems may appear similar but the biggest difference is that FBS is always focused on helping you get in and out of the system quickly and efficiently. 

Exhibit A: 3-Step Search

 As you likely heard Matty say many times during his demonstrations, Flexmls lets you “search, find, and act”, all on one screen without having a bunch of pop-ups that distract you or repeatedly reset the screen. Instead, the tabbed interface in Flexmls allows you to easily look at all the content without losing your place. You can cycle through 40 photos, preview the detail display, listing history, public records, etc., and return to the 40th photo, exactly where you left off, without refreshing the page or losing your place. That is a winning user experience focused on helping you get your job done faster.

As acknowledged above, we understand the benefits of updating the fonts, look, and feel of the interface, but we also want to preserve what we already know is great about Flexmls as we do that. As we have been updating our UI, we’re very conscious of bringing our customers with us one step at a time to ensure that we’re truly benefiting them and not just making change for change’s sake.  We believe this kind of care is why we have such a high retention rate and are consistently growing our market share, which enables us to invest in the long-term future for our customers.

In closing, we would like to thank you for the opportunity to present our company and system to you for consideration. We’ve enjoyed getting to know you all and would be honored if you select us to be your next vendor. We know we can serve you at the highest levels both now and for many years to come.