CAMPBELL, CA - Move (Nasdaq: MOVE), the leader in online real estate, today announced its FIND real estate platform for industry professionals, will be released and available to multiple listing services (MLSs) across the nation beginning September 30th. FIND is a sophisticated search engine designed to help MLSs provide their subscribers with fast, flexible and easy access to their data and Move's real estate content.
With the highly anticipated release of FIND, the seven initial subscribing MLSs will have flexibility in accessing their listings along with the unprecedented speed and accuracy of the information being posted. The Move search engine also offers diverse data sets including local school reports and reviews, demographics, mapping, enhanced public records, detailed neighborhood information, and psychographic community data. In addition, FIND subscribers have access to all active listings nationwide, and additional status information including sold, off market, and pending sales from other MLSs using the FIND application - all accessed through an intuitive and natural-language search experience. Designed as a research tool for real estate professionals, FIND delivers robust, comprehensive and continually refreshed data in a manner designed to become a value-added search and data research solution for real estate professionals that's customized to fit each subscriber's local marketing needs.
"The relationship between real estate professionals and their clients will definitely benefit from access to the type of rich data points offered by FIND as buyers and sellers are reliant on an agent's professional insight and knowledge of markets," said Bob Hale, president of the Houston Association of Realtors in Texas.
The seven MLSs with signed license agreements for FIND include: Metrolist Services, Inc. in Sacramento, California; Intermountain MLS (IMLS) in Boise, Idaho; the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) in Texas; the Cambridge Board of REALTORS, the Northern Ohio Regional (NORMLS) and Centralized Regional Information Services (CRIS) all three located in Ohio; and Information and Real Estate Services, LLC (IRES) in the Boulder/Fort Collins, Colorado area. Collectively, these seven MLSs represent 68,000 members and more than 168,000 real estate listings. Ten additional MLSs comprised of 170,000 members and 320,000 active listings have the approval of their respective boards to become FIND subscribers and are in the final stages of processing licensing agreements with Move.
FIND's advanced natural language processor easily identifies word structures, even when the spelling is dissimilar (i.e., in-ground vs. in ground) and varied real estate terms (i.e., duplex vs. Gemini Home), and automatically modifies the query and links users to the results without sending them back to the beginning of the search process. FIND also enriches public data currently used and distributed by MLSs, giving greater depth in property and listing search analytics by including neighborhood comparisons on more than 80,000 communities, property comparisons (within a one-mile radius).
FIND offers participating MLS subscribers a streamlined approach to data retrieval that can be localized for fast and highly refined search results. For example, MLS members using FIND can expand the number of data search points to accommodate local trends and interests specific to a buyer such as homes located in a specific school district priced within a buyer's identified budget. Properties can also be tagged according to buyer interests such as 'investor' or 'first time buyer' to more successfully meet future search needs based on client interests. Search boundaries can be customized by redrawing polygons on a map or by hovering over an area. If a search for comparable properties (in a one-mile radius) doesn't result in enough listings, users simply adjust a slider to expand search parameters so they include a greater number of similar properties. FIND neighborhood comparisons also goes beyond comparing schools and demographic details to surface up airport flight patterns, local flood plains, historical weather patterns and earthquake fault lines, among other local features.
Tom Beede, chief executive officer and president of the Metrolist Services, Inc., MLS serving the greater Sacramento, California area said, "Our partnership with Move combines the regional expertise and resources offered by the Metrolist Services MLS to our brokers and real estate professionals throughout the greater central valley region of California. The value-added FIND data increases our subscriber's ability to further position themselves as real estate property experts with their clients."
Subscription to FIND by MLSs is free of charge and includes the FIND search engine application, hosting solution software, a 24-hour data center available for monitoring and backups, maintenance, and access to Move's comprehensive and fresh data content to help MLS partners customize their FIND platform. MLSs can brand their members' experience and select which data fields are displayed within their FIND experience, decide whether or not they will participate in reciprocal data access with other MLSs, and designate which MLS subscribers receive access to their data.
In exchange for receiving access to Move's FIND platform, search engine and services, subscribing MLSs license Move to display their approved content on Realtor.com. As part of the agreement, Move will not re-sell MLS data sourced for FIND or use it to create 'derivative' products for resale to third parties. Move does not require exclusivity from participating MLS partners as part of the FIND subscription program.
"Both consumers and real estate professionals need fresh, accurate and comprehensive property and neighborhood data that's easy to find and use from a trusted source," said Move CEO, Steve Berkowitz. "While consumers have many options, we believe real estate professionals will benefit more as they work with clients if they have access to a resource that offers them the depth of accurate listing data and content, search technology, and the ease of use that Move's FIND search engine offers. By expanding Move's MLS partnerships into collaborative exchanges of valuable data and services through FIND, real estate professionals have instant access to powerful search engine technology from one trusted partner that strengthens their position as local experts. We're pleased to offer this technology and access to our MLS partners and their members."
Access to Move's FIND search engine is exclusively available only to broker-members and their agents of subscribing MLSs throughout the United States. For more information about FIND, interested MLS representatives can contact their Industry Relations representative, or the FIND Customer Care Center at 866-960-7481.
Move, Inc. (Nasdaq: MOVE) is the leader in online real estate with 12.7 million(1) monthly visitors to its online network of websites. Move, Inc. operates: Move.com, a leading destination for information on new homes and rental listings, moving, home and garden and home finance; REALTOR.com®, the official website of the National Association of REALTORS®; Moving.com; SeniorHousingNet; and TOP PRODUCER Systems. Move, Inc. is based in Campbell, California.
Source: Move.com