What a year it’s been! I am incredibly proud of all we’ve accomplished together. By the close of the year, you will have used REcolorado as your MLS partner to facilitate more than 50,000 closings totaling over $32 billion in sales volume. With your needs in mind, our focus was on fortifying our foundation, adjusting our strategies, and building relationships that will prepare us to not only survive but to thrive in an industry that is changing and a market that has shifted. I’m happy to say that we’ve met and even exceeded our goals.
Among our top priorities throughout the year was listening to you–our customers, partners, vendors, and peers. I firmly believe understanding one another is necessary to build upon our foundation, increase our reach, and accelerate our pace. To hear more from you, we expanded the efforts around our REcolorado Think Tank and spent valuable time in the industry participating in meetings, speaking at events, and serving on committees.
Data Drives Us Forward
Our industry is in the midst of a shift and we’re prepared to meet your changing needs. At its core, REcolorado is a data company. As such, we’ve put additional resources behind ensuring our data is accurate and comprehensive with an eye towards the future. In fact, data is the driving force behind many of our strategies in the coming year.
We’ve already announced three major partnerships that will lay the groundwork to deliver on our vision of empowering a trusted, cooperative, and comprehensive real estate marketplace to position you for success by providing the data, technology, and intelligence you need to grow your business.
- Breaking Through Borders
Through our recent strategic partnership with First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS), the largest MLS in the state of Georgia, you’ll be able to see listings outside the immediate area you serve, make referrals to a market expert, get referrals from brokers across Colorado, Georgia, and Alabama, and give your clients a high-level understanding of those markets. This partnership will allow you to give your customers the best possible service with direct, real-time access to reliable listing data in the MLS, even when their search takes them outside Colorado. We won’t stop there! We’ve already heard from many of you about other markets where you’d like more listing visibility and referral opportunities. Looking to the future, we’ll keep breaking through borders by forming similar partnerships with like-minded organizations.
- Streamlining Data Feeds to Power Your Tools
Our partnership with MLS Grid, a collaborative effort among leading MLS organizations across the country, will solve a massive technical need in the real estate industry by streamlining the data delivery process and standardizing listing data in a secure and reliable system. By standardizing how data gets to your MLS tools, you’ll benefit from the most reliable and up to date information. It also means tools can be developed more easily, giving you more and better ways to serve your clients.
- Powering Housing Data Research
Not only is data used to power tools like CMAs, market statistics, and back-office systems, housing data is vital to large institutions and policy makers from the US government to banking institutions and beyond. We have teamed up with a collective of MLSs across the country to provide listing data to REdistribute, who in turn will ensure the data is used responsibly. Aggregate data from all MLSs participating in REdistribute—which is collected and distributed ethically, securely, and reliably—will be sold to large entities like the US government and banking institutions who use housing data to understand the local and national real estate market and implement services or products that help communities. Any profits will go back to the MLSs and ultimately benefit you, our customers.
That may seem like a lot, but we’re just getting started! As a recognized leader in the real estate industry with a strong strategy in place, we are well-positioned for the years ahead.
It has been an honor and a privilege to be leading REcolorado and working as your partner. We’re looking forward to welcoming 2023 with you and we hope you all have a prosperous year ahead!
Gene Millman
REcolorado President & Chief Executive Officer