Here Comes Homesnap

One of Homesnap’s major selling points for busy agents is its Homesnap Messages feature, which collects all of a buyer’s searches in one place and enables an agent to see all of the conversations relating to a particular property. Buyers can share homes, chat about them, and connect with agents through the app. Agents can, in turn, use the app to message their buyers or other agents within their own MLS.

Homesnap’s other basic features include photo sharing, mapping, and a group or one-on-one chat feature, putting a comprehensive and easy-to-use tool in the hands of agents. The app offers consumers a home search experience that was conceptualized by people whose focus is selling homes — not advertising. Any home can be shared, whether it is already on the market or not yet for sale. Additionally, agents can message their clients when a home becomes available. There is no advertising or paid broker placements within the app.

Lund notes that an oft-overlooked yet core component of the MLS is its Client Servicing Portal.

“MLSs not only hydrate real estate agents, but they also are the primary place consumers seek real estate information,” he says. “Homesnap understands that. As a result, its mobile app is among the first to truly integrate into the MLS to provide a consumer-facing and an agent-facing app, mashed up into one.”
To date, Homesnap has launched in some 50 markets, although they have not yet been linked or marketed together, according to Lund. Thus far, agents who have adopted the app have reached more than four million consumers.

MRED launched Broker Public Portal on July 20, making it the first MLS in the consortium to put Homesnap’s tools in the hands of its members. It marks the first time brokers have backed an MLS-supported search tool in the Chicago market.

According to Gregory, in addition to being one of the first MLS providers nationally to embrace the BPP, MRED is continuously seeking new ways to engage its members and their client base. That involves strategic partnerships and technology development.

“MRED is one of the founding MLSs to participate in MTP, the MLS Technology Platform,” Gregory says. “So far, seven regional MLS organizations from around the country are participating in this initiative, which is a data repository used for common IDX feeds. That platform will provide participants with the ability to obtain data analytics and enable Realtors to do better business.”

Agents may wonder what this all means for MRED’s current app, Midwest Homes. “With the successful release of BPP via the Homesnap app, MRED will be discontinuing the offering of the Midwest Homes app,” Jensen says. “Much more information regarding timeframes and transition plans will be forthcoming.”