When the phone rang in her office and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) was on the other end of the line, Katie Schmitt, Assistant Manager for Apartment Guys Gold Coast, had a moment of panic. Fearing the worst, Katie thought “Are we getting fined for something or had we forgotten to do something in the MLS system?”

Apartment Guys Gold Coast focuses on apartment leasing in the downtown and north side Chicago marketplace. Katie had recently filled out a survey MRED had distributed to its customers in preparation for its recent Business Planning meetings. An incentive for Katie to complete the survey was to have an entry in a drawing by MRED to win a new iPad. However, her reason for taking time to complete the survey was to make sure MRED knew of the interest her office has in leasing-focused training classes and other services dedicated to leasing agents.

Katie’s comments have not fallen on deaf ears. MRED has been having internal discussions regarding what it can do to better serve the rental market and the offices and agents that work in that arena. MRED recognizes that while the home sales market will eventually rebound and business will improve for sales agents, there is and will continue to be a substantial rental market that needs to be serviced.

What Katie heard was not that Apartment Guys had done anything wrong, but that she was, in fact, the winner of MRED’s drawing. Her prize was a brand new 64gig iPad!

“While I didn’t fill out the survey thinking I had any chance to win, I’ll gladly take a new iPad any day,” said Katie. “We would gladly give out an iPad in exchange for the great information Katie and the other 7,000 survey respondents provided,” said MRED CEO Russ Bergeron, adding “We are always interested in hearing what our customers have to say. After all, we exist to support all of them in the business of real estate.”

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) is a real estate data aggregator and distributor that provides the largest multiple listing service (by listing volume) to over 40,000 customers, with property information encompassing northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northwest Indiana.