The lightning success of the Broker Public Portal (BPP) has given more than one million real estate agents access to Homesnap technology. And now, engaging millions of consumers everywhere is how BPP with Homesnap will provide consumers a superior alternative to advertising portals.

Make no mistake: Our industry has allowed the advertising portals to get between brokers and consumers. But the industry now provides every consumer a better choice by connecting them to licensed professionals who list and sell homes, not ads. By partnering with BPP with Homesnap, MLSs empower, launch and maintain the most powerful consumer-facing search experience that promotes and honors the listing firm and the buyer’s agent without ads and advertising fees.

MLSs With BPP Can Help You Succeed
Momentum is on the BPP’s side. So is the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) policy. Six years ago, NAR made public-facing websites a basic service, spelling out that MLSs are able to charge all members for both operation and promotion of these sites. A national MLS consumer site makes sense, drawing collaboration from all MLSs and brokers nationwide.

Partnering with the BPP to deliver a public-facing website solution is the clear winning strategy. The Broker Public Portal with Homesnap is now the second-largest MLS consumer website right behind HAR.com, according to Hitwise, the nation’s leading source for measuring real estate web traffic. HAR.com does an excellent job in Texas and for consumers looking to move to Texas. Today, HAR.com generates more local traffic than Zillow in Houston.

But the average MLS can’t compete against Zillow in their own city or even other ad portals, and certainly not for $1 per agent per month, the cost to an MLS to join the BPP with Homesnap. MLSs that build their own solution need to have vast expertise and tremendous marketing in order to generate any meaningful impact in attracting consumers.

Homesnap now also offers a local public-facing website solution, providing the same hub-and-spoke design that brokerages use, with Homesnap.com as the hub and individual MLS websites as the spokes. Homesnap can create a local public-facing website at no additional cost for MLSs who partner with the BPP, an example of which can be found at www.wisconsinhomes.com.

How Can the BPP Help You?
Every MLS in America should offer agents and brokers Homesnap and feature a download link prominently on their homepage. And every agent should invite every single client to download it. Why?

• Only Homesnap supports the Fair Display Guidelines that guarantee that if it’s your listing, it’s your lead and no other agent’s ads appear on any of your listings.
• Your brokerage gets the No. 1 mobile real estate app that consumers prefer, with complete co-branding. And their agents get the No. 1 mobile app for agents.
• Agents get individual branding.
• The BPP is owned by the industry—real estate brokerages and MLSs—who collaborate to design the business rules to ensure that the MLS site works for the members, not against them.

The question for the MLS is: Do you check a box and put up a site that really doesn’t provide any real value to your agents, or do you partner with the BPP to deliver the most valuable resource your agent has?

It’s time for every MLS to fully collaborate with the BPP to win back the consumer. If your MLS hasn’t partnered with the BPP, visit brokerpublicportal.com today.

Victor Lund is a founding partner of leading industry consulting firm WAV Group; he also serves as manager of the Broker Public Portal’s LLC. Known for leveraging a vast industry perspective, Lund helps clients see first what others see eventually.