First American Partners With MarketLinx to Create Web-Based MLS Software Provider
May 8, 2002
Productivity Solutions Give Brokers and Their Agents Greater Power
SANTA ANA, Calif., May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF has acquired an equity ownership interest in MarketLinx Solutions, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based multiple listing service (MLS) software company.
In exchange for an undisclosed ownership interest in MarketLinx, First American will merge its Fusion MLS business with MarketLinx's MLS operations to create the nation's largest provider of Web-based MLS software and services. Brokers and their agents will benefit from the powerful productivity tools that reduce cycle times by streamlining the transaction processes -- giving them more time to serve current customers, while marketing themselves to new ones. These Web-based solutions are designed to help real estate brokers recruit and retain top agents, while dramatically reducing the costs traditionally borne by real estate professionals to maintain traditional legacy software systems.
"As the nation's largest real estate information provider, First American is continually seeking new and more efficient channels through which to deliver our products," said Parker S. Kennedy, president of The First American Corporation. "Combining First American's MLS business with MarketLinx enables us to provide superior MLS solutions and related information directly to the desktops of the nation's high-producing brokers and agents."
Fusion MLS and MarketLinx are both easy-to-use Internet-based MLS systems that include marketing, productivity, financial and communications tools to assist real estate professionals in obtaining new listings, marketing properties for sale, and scheduling and managing the closing process.
"Our customers have been seeking choices that would combine our flexible Internet MLS service with world-class data and transaction management," said Doyal Hodge, president and chief executive officer of MarketLinx. "Through this partnership with First American, we gain access to the nation's most comprehensive property information database and a technology platform that helps to speed home sale transactions; a combination that allows us to simplify the typically cumbersome practice of purchasing and integrating timely data needed by MLS organizations."
"First American and MarketLinx now serve more than 50 percent of the fast- growing, Web-based MLS market, which offers significant cost advantages to the legacy software systems provided by other MLS service providers," said George Livermore, president of First American Real Estate Solutions (RES). "MarketLinx's strength in the Web-based MLS market, combined with RES' reputation for data quality, gives us the opportunity to deliver our real estate data, maps, document images and automated valuation models through a far more integrated and convenient approach."
Livermore added: "We believe that real estate professionals should have the freedom to choose the software and systems that work best for them. With that in mind, First American will continue to incorporate its data and services with open systems that give brokers and their agents the ability to remain flexible and attentive to their customers."
Source: The First American Corporation
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