The new public mls search site from flexmls and the Tucson Association of Realtors® is up and running as of today. One day earlier than promised. You can find it here> http://tarmls.com/
And already a reader has weighed in with his opinion of the site.
I’ll post his email here, in the hopes of getting the ball rolling, and look forward to others letting us know what you think.
(just click> Comments at bottom of this post, and fire away)
Bruce wrote;
John
I am not a realtor, just a old banker trying to research and buy a home in Tucson. The new MLS system is a major step backward (from a consumers standpoint); maybe realtors have more bells and whistles. In my industry, to survive as an independent community bank, you have to be on the cutting edge in terms of technology to both retain customers and reduce costs. If TAR’s moved to the new system to save money, they got what they paid for, an inferior product! The old system had more search options, ran faster, and was more intuitive to use. If there are some ‘great tools’ out there with this system, make them available to sophisticated buyers trying to use them. If what that is available with the public options is it, too bad for the prospective buyers.
When you live over 1,000 miles away and are trying to research the options available by area (now only 3 choices) and in a house (about 1/3 of the search options as before), it gets real frustrating. Maybe we should look at other areas where the data are more readily available. Transparency, access, and speed of delivery of relevant information over the internet is what customers demand in the 21st century, not a striped down inferior product such as ‘flexmls’ offers. Did the committee selecting this product miss the internet as an important channel to market and sell their products?
bbm
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Though it appears in the Comments section, I thought it only fair to prominently post an opposing point of view, so here’s Jim, a reader who seems to be enjoying the new flexmls system,
This new MLS search site seems faster to me, especially when using the map in conjunction with search criteria. I've been using the old system for a year now and was frustrated at how incredibly S-L-O-W the map refreshes were. This new format will take some getting used to (as all things do) but in just an hour or so, this 50 year-old didn't find it all that challenging. I think this new MLS search site has potential to be more useful to this buyer. I definitely wouldn't be writing it off so soon. BTW, John, I've been meaning to compliment your blog for some time. I've enjoyed it for many months now and look forward to your take on listings I've seen and homes I've visited. It is refreshing to read your unabashed commentary.
Jim
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please, let’s hear more,
