Stand By For Position RPR Verification

Last month, we reviewed the down to earth business intelligence and guidance provided to the brokerage community by a recent series of industry conferences renown for the depth of their research and the accuracy of their presentations. In preparation for this month's information, you are requested to immediately climb to 55,000 feet for a more extended view of the circumstances that will be impacting, if not controlling, your businesses and marketplace moving forward.

The events of Saturday, May 16th will, in all likelihood, impact the operation of your business more than any other single day in recent history. This is, of course, a reference to the National Association of REALTORS® Board of Directors meeting held in Washington, D.C. and the positive vote taken in support of NAR's partnership with Project Upstream as well as the funding of both Project Upstream and AMP (Advanced Multi-List Platform).

The following comments benefit generously from comments made by Dale Ross, the uber gifted RPR CEO. The partnership between NAR and UpstreamRE, LLC will leverage the RPR technology platform to develop a new data management service for brokers known as Project Upstream. The events of May 16th culminated several months of extensive discussions between the leaders of many of the nation's largest brokerages, franchise networks and NAR. They created a significant opportunity for the industry to leverage and take advantage of RPR's five-year investment in data and technology.

In light of the importance of these events, additional clarification may be necessary. It is common knowledge within the industry that NAR, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Realtors Property Resource®, has, over the past five years, invested millions of dollars into what may be the finest real estate database ever created. It is also widely known in the industry that RPR's first attempt, in 2010, to bring the benefits of this database to its REALTOR® constituents was something less than successful. Even today, five years later, our ever-present industry observers--many of whom have no claim to creativity or innovation--continue to rave on about this early shortfall.