Finally, someone is getting it right about the MLS fiasco in Dallas. We were sold down the river. When Colthorp talks about "garbage in..garbage out," that's garbage. We didn't have problems inputting our own listings before. And we didn't get into the real estate business so we could learn to become computer programmers. The whole thing stinks.

Steve Collins
972-248-5402

So what is "News" about this. From what I hear everything Moore does turns out this way. We fell for their sales "promises" and converted about a year ago and we are still having all of the same problems that DFW is having in the article. (We are a multi county, 2 state MLS, commonly known as Toledo, OH, but including several counties in Ohio and Monroe County, Michigan [ where I am].

Our system has never worked right (as it was sold to us) and I doubt that it ever will. Moore's best points are promising anything to make the sale and then not responding to problems/complaints.... I could go on for pages, but the good news is our contract was only for 3 (long) years, and we're almost a third of the way through it..

Moore data = More Problems

Art Pietscher, Broker / Owner
New Horizons REALTY
Monroe, MI

Isn't the medical definition of insanity the continued repetition of the same behavior while expecting different results?

To the rest of the world Texas means big Oil and vast herds of cattle. So tell me, is it the fumes that are affecting the Dallas Realtors? Or is there some kind of contagious mad cow disease that has swept the real estate range?

Good Article!
Olivia Tam Edwards
Coldwell Banker - Redwood City, CA

As an Orlando real estate agent who has recently seen the Greater Orlando Board of Realtors change our system to SYSTEM 4 by GTE; I can fully sympathize with the Dallas agents. The GTE System 4 is incredibly slow, unreliable and prone to breaking down. Surely, there must be a better system for large boards that would be capable of handling high traffic. This makes us all look bad.

Linda Hutchinson
RE/MAX Realty Partners
Orlando, Florida
lindahutchinson@msn.com
1-800-MY-REMAX

I take offense to Tompkins statement that most of the squawking is done by Realtor techies! Wake up!!! This is the 90's.....the world is passing us by....if we DON'T become techies we will lose business to the next guy because the consumers out there in the marketplace are certainly becoming "techies" as evidenced by Realtor.com's 6million visitors last month! .

Nora Ling Lane
Henry S. Miller, REALTORS®
Dallas, TX

We have just completed a conversion to Moore here in New Jersey. The conversion went smoothly considering the amount of data. There will always be some snags that have to be worked out. From my experience it is an education problem...the agents need to educate themselves as to using the system efficiently. You have to give it time.

Albert S. Veltri
Crossroads Realty, Inc.
732.244.2200 Office
al@realtynj.com

Maybe it's because I just got home from an IMAX theater viewing of "Everest", but I have this feeling as though the Real Estate industry is at Mid Base Level Camp, floating precariously on the worlds most vertical ice flow. Suddenly someone yells "Dallas!" and the mother of all avalanches begins.

Call in the St. Bernard's. Bring money, guns and lawyers.

This nonsense that web based XML systems might not be able to handle the traffic volume of 15,000 users really gets to me though. Web based systems like Yahoo, Amazon and Netscape handle that kind of traffic every millisecond 24x7 days per week!

XML is intended to greatly enhance both the performance and volume of document and data exchange for Internet traffic flows now reaching numbers like 148 Million users. What MLS could ever contemplate that kind of performance stress?

Ever conduct a search at Yahoo or Amazon? How fast is that? What MLS has a volume of data to match what is now routine on the Web? It's not even a close contest.

The real story in Dallas is that the practitioners are still listening to same old, same old, group of knuckle dragging chuckleheads that got them into this mess in the first place.

Not only is it true that you get what you pay for, but it's also true that if you don't step into the fray, you do indeed get what others decide is best for you (uh, them).

Remember the Alamo! Forget the Chuckleheads!!!

~ge~

Published: February 16, 1999

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