Byline: Kim Prior
At FBS, we know that high-quality listing visuals and media aren’t just nice to have. Rather, they’re an essential part of the consumer experience. And as technology has evolved, so have consumer expectations. Today’s buyers and sellers expect immersive, informative media experiences, way beyond photos. That reality drives our continuous innovation, ensuring our MLS customers and their subscribers (brokers and agents) have the tools they need to satisfy consumer demand. Enabling choice is essential for our customers to benefit from valuable media data. The Flexmls Platform supports floor plans from many different vendors.
We’ve enhanced the Flexmls Platform with a dedicated floor plan category, making it easier than ever for agents to include this critical media asset. As well as improving the visibility for listings with rich media making floor plans, videos, and virtual tours highly visible and easy to find. As consumers come to expect more rich listing media, we are creating enhancements to ensure that floor plans, videos, and virtual tours are treated as distinct and valuable media types.
We’re Just Getting Started:
Our broader mission is to empower MLSs with the best possible media solutions for subscribers, while making the MLS the masters of the data. That includes:
Bringing listings to life
Our enhancements are aimed at providing a comprehensive online multimedia visual experience of the listing, thus improving and enriching the homebuying (and selling) experience.
Giving agents choice
The Flexmls Platform accepts floor plans from ANY source.
Empowering MLSs to administer their own media provider program
The Flexmls Platform is equipped with tools and resources that make it easy. Our tools are pre-loaded with some of the industry’s most widely used media providers—giving agents and approved photographers a faster, easier, more error-proof way to upload media into MLS.
Seamless third-party media integrations that improve the process for agents
We’ve added groundbreaking integrations with iGuide and Matterport, allowing agents to use their virtual tour data to automatically populate room data. Most recently, we have partnered with Zillow and CubiCasa to develop additional integrations within Flexmls—which are coming soon. And, we’ll be adding more exciting integrations in the future.
As you’d expect, the MLS owns the data
Our contracts ensure that MLSs own their valuable data. By centralizing listing visuals—such as floor plans, virtual tours, high-quality photography, and more—MLSs strengthen their position as the definitive source of valuable real estate data.
More to come!
Future enhancements will continue to improve, speed up, and simplify media in the Flexmls Platform. We’ll introduce features that highlight listings containing additional media, such as 3D tours, and that also automatically link media to listings when obtained through integrated vendors.
The MLS, The Media Master:
FBS is committed to helping MLSs navigate the future by leading the way with meaningful, valuable innovation, such as data dominance and media mastery. We’ll keep you informed as we continue to build and implement powerful features through integrations and partnerships.