Update!! The following message was mailed to all members on Friday, August 4, 2017. The original Musings column continues after this message.
Joint Data Share Announcement From RAHB and ORTIS
ORTIS and RAHB are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement regarding data sharing. The data share that you all enjoy now, as either users of ORTIS or members of RAHB, will continue, uninterrupted when RAHB moves from its current Fusion platform to Matrix. We’ll be in touch with further details in the near future. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact RAHB’s MLS® department at 905.667-4650 or mls@rahb.ca.
To allow time for CoreLogic to put in place the data share program, RAHB will extend the cut over date to its new Matrix system from August 15th to the beginning of October. Until then RAHB and ORTIS users will experience no change in the existing data share and data access.
We wish you and your family all the best for the long weekend. Thank you for being a RAHB member.
Sincerely,
George O’Neill
RAHB CEO
Lou Piriano
RAHB President
It was one year ago, in my August 2016 Musings column, that I spoke about the decision RAHB’s Board of Directors made to proceed with the upgrade of Fusion to our own Matrix system, instead of cutting over to the regional Matrix system operated by ORTIS.
At that time, after a great deal of deliberation, our Board decided it was not reasonable to give up management of our MLS® System to another entity. Even though we did not wish to be part of the regional system business model as it evolved to, our founding goal remained to secure a data sharing agreement with our neighbouring real estate boards and associations, so that all our members could continue to benefit from access to a wider pool of MLS® information. So we embarked on negotiating a data share contract with ORTIS.
Here we are, one year later. We now have our own Matrix 7.0 MLS® System in place and in preview mode and ready to launch within a number of weeks. But as I write this, appropriate control of MLS® data is still being resolved as we work to finalize a data sharing agreement with ORTIS.
On July 19, RAHB President Lou Piriano and I sent an update to each full RAHB member, explaining our current situation; a copy of the letter is reprinted later in this issue.
In a nutshell, we made concessions on eight of the last ten areas we were concerned about with respect to ORTIS’s most recent version of the data sharing contract. Compromise is often required to move things forward, and your Board was willing to make concessions to give you, our members, access to the regional MLS® data you want.
However, our Board was unable to compromise on two fundamental issues: the control of the distribution of your listing information and reciprocity of data access. We thought these issues had been worked out with ORTIS earlier in the year, but they were subsequently deleted from the contract proposed by ORTIS.
RAHB’s business lawyer has amended the contract to include the two items previously agreed upon, and ORTIS has a copy of the amended agreement. It is our hope the ORTIS board will bring negotiations to an end by signing the agreement and giving members of all the boards and associations what they want – that is, region-wide listing information.
This has been a long and rocky journey to bring you a wide range of MLS® information so you can better serve your clients and customers. Through it all, your Board of Directors has acted with integrity and always with the best interests of you in mind.
To each of you I’d like to say, thank you for your patience, thank you for your understanding, and thank you for being a member of RAHB.
On August 1, we are launching a weekly e-newsletter, NewsReal, especially for breaking news about our discussions with ORTIS, and our progress towards Matrix. It will be emailed to you every Tuesday throughout the remainder of this summer and fall. Please be sure to check your email, and don’t hesitate to contact me directly if you have questions or comments. We have also tentatively planned a general meeting for August 22 at 9 a.m. We’ll hold it if ORTIS and data sharing issues are still outstanding at that time. For now, please put it in your calendar. We’ll confirm it closer to the date.
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There are two new events coming up this fall that I’d like to bring to your attention.
The first is RAHB’s ProDev+ professional development event on Thursday, October 12 at the Holiday Inn Burlington. This is an upgrade on Professional Development Days and will give you the opportunity to spend a day becoming more informed about current topics in real estate. It’s also a great chance to socialize with your colleagues in the courses, at the trade show and at the wind-up Signature+ cocktail mixer. Check out the information about ProDev+ later in this issue.
The other event is the Real Estate Outlook on Wednesday, November 8 at Liuna Station. This is a joint venture by CMHC and RAHB, and will include a presentation by a CMHC market analyst and feature a panel of experts who will help you navigate the current local marketplace. Real Estate Outlook will also offer great networking opportunities. There is more information about the event in this issue of Realinfo.