Broker Public Portal Inks Deal to Become Homesnap

Broker Public Portal, LLC and Homesnap, Inc. have executed final agreements to create the National Broker Portal, LLC, a joint venture that is equally owned by the two companies. The parties agreed that the best path to success would be served by forming a mutual partnership with Homesnap providing technology, brand and operational expertise to the new company, rather than composing a vendor agreement.

The National Association of REALTORS® modified their model MLS policy to designate an MLS consumer facing website as a basic benefit of the MLS. In turn, more than 50 leading brokers and 50 leading MLSs developed the case for a national consumer site rather than 700 independent local MLS sites. "HAR.com and a number of other MLSs have been able to capture a reasonable share of voice in online consumer search," said Rebecca Jensen, President and CEO of Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED). "But we believe that the best opportunity for success will be paved by MLSs who focus on a single, national strategy."

MRED is one of several MLSs whose board of directors have already authorized participation in the portal, including a $1 per subscriber fee that will be paid to the National Broker Portal each month. Other MLSs committed to the portal include Northstar MLS (Minneapolis), Connecticut MLS, NORMLS (Cleveland), CRIS (Akron), Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors and Rochester Genesee Region Real Estate Service.

In anticipation of this initiative being formalized, MRED launched the BPP/Homesnap app in July of 2016. "Adoption has reached over 25 percent of MRED's 40,000+ Realtor customers in just a few months," added Jensen. In addition, now that the joint venture has been finalized, MLSs representing over 200,000 subscribers have requested the new National Broker Portal MLS Agreement to review and present to their boards.