AS WE BEGIN 2019, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to our subscribers in the Northern Virginia market for working with us. I’d also like to explain some of what we’ve been doing and what’s still ahead.

Any time we complete a switch from one technology platform to another, I find it beneficial to remind ourselves of the reasons why it has been introduced and the opportunities that lie ahead.

Those reasons were quite simple for Bright MLS: to expand access to information for real estate professionals, to provide more impactful innovation to our subscribers, and to create a simpler, better MLS experience.

Now that the Bright platform is live in your area, we’re looking forward to focusing even more on improving that experience for you.

Part of our mission has been to listen to our subscribers at every step of the transition process and to consider that feedback as we make decisions that are good for everyone.

We continue to listen to your feedback and make improvements.

We know one of the areas that needs improvement is quicker access to Customer Support and to information on how to use the system. We continue to improve this experience and are in the process of ramping up our Customer Support staff, creating new online resources, adding additional videos to the Bright YouTube channel, and adding live Q&A and training through our YouTube channel.

In addition, we are making changes to the system based on your feedback.

Here are just some of the changes we’ve recently made or are currently working on:

We heard your feedback on needing state and county identifiers in the MLS listing numbers and made the decision to add them to Bright.

We added new reports and continue to evaluate and add reports, including:

• The Appraiser Parcel One Page Report.
• The Price Analysis Report.
• Available soon: The Gallery View Report.

We continue our work to standardize subdivision information.

We’ve removed requirements for fields not applicable in your area like Transaction Brokerage and Sub- Agency compensation, as well as the mandatory disclosure of whether a property is in a Flood Zone.

We’re gathering additional feedback and considering changes to Days on Market (DOM).

And you now have several new tools, including DriveTime search, hit counters, reverse prospecting and concierge option, that enhance your insight and ability to serve clients – all within the Bright platform.

Another big part of our mission centers around access to information and harnessing data in innovative and impactful ways. In short, we want you to have the most accurate, fast data in different formats – supporting your role as a market and transactional expert.

We’ve been busy enhancing the Bright system with more of the information you need, including mortgage data and flood reports.

But we’re not stopping there.

In early 2019, we’ll be launching Listing Performance Reports. These detailed reports include stats showing how buyers are interacting with your listing and compare that activity to the activity on competitive properties in your local market. These are deep-dive reports that only you can access. Use them either to educate yourself or to share with clients to help them make critical decisions in their buying or selling journey.

And there’s a lot more coming. We’ve surpassed many milestones in 2018 and navigated huge change along the way. But we begin the New Year staying close to our original mission to build a better MLS for our subscribers, and with a renewed energy to help drive your business forward.

Thanks again for your support.