AT A LIVESTREAM and in-person meet-up with Bright MLS leadership on Feb. 15, the message from Bright was clear: we hear you, we know we have made mistakes, and we are working diligently to address your concerns and improve the new system.

"Our charge is to make your lives easier – to bring you the best MLS out there.” - Brian Donnellan

The event, which was held at NVAR’s Fairfax headquarters, was co-hosted by NVAR, Dulles Area Association of Realtors® (DAAR), Realtor® Association of Prince William (PWAR), Greater Piedmont Realtors® (GPR), Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors® (FAAR) and Blue Ridge Association of Realtors® (BRAR).

Bright MLS Interim CEO Brian Donnellan began the event by expressing Bright’s eagerness to engage in an open dialogue with members. He summarized three pillars that Bright seeks to improve: the user experience, data speed and accuracy, and communication with local associations and Bright subscribers. In addition, he emphasized Bright’s commitment to “learn, listen and adapt,” as well as to localize the new system.

“We’ve made your lives harder in some ways and for that I apologize,” Donnellan said. “I want to focus today on where we are and where we are moving forward.”

Below is a summary of the information panelists provided to the most commonly asked questions. The panelists included Donnellan, Bright Chief Technology Officer Frank Major, Bright Regional Vice President Vernon Jones, Bright MLS Board Member David Howell, NVAR President Christine Richardson and NVAR CEO Ryan Conrad.

To watch the recording of the event, visit NVAR.com/bright.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Bright acknowledged that subscribers are experiencing long wait times and issues with call-backs. They have hired more customer support representatives and will continue hiring until they meet their goal of answering 80 percent of phone calls in 60 seconds or less.

In addition, Bight has implemented a regional vice president program, which assigns a dedicated Bright staff member to each local region.

Bright is revamping its customer service training process to ensure consistency of responses. They are implementing more user training and have started a YouTube channel in addition to in-person training.

DATA INTEGRITY

One of the most common concerns of subscribers has been the accuracy and speed of the data. Bright explained that while most of the data is correct, it is not showing up in Matrix correctly because of differences between the old and new system. Bright is working diligently to address these issues, which include:

• Public Records Data: When bringing public records data into the new system, Bright used third-party data vendors with the county data. In some counties this method worked, but in the NVAR region, the previous data was more reliable. Bright is adding back in the county data one county at a time and will provide a timeline of when each county can expect to have that data.
• Subdivisions: In the old system, Subdivision was a free-text field. In the new system, Bright implemented a dropdown menu, and some of that integrated data from the free- text field was inaccurate. Bright is cleaning up each subdivision to ensure the dropdown options are correct. Users can still use a wildcard (*) to search for keywords that are included in the subdivision name.
• Listing Data: Bright is implementing a listing data checker, which is an external process that will ensure the data is correct.

STATUSES AND DAYS ON MARKET (DOM)

To answer the question of how decisions were made about statuses and DOM, Donnellan explained that at the outset, Bright created a vision team, which included Realtors®, that looked at statuses and DOM to make recommendations for the new system. The decisions reached have caused confusion, due in part to the lack of an industry standard for DOM. Bright is assembling a new team to “re-look at the intentions of Days on Market,” Donnellan said.

Read more about DOM status clarification in the Bright updates linked at NVAR.com/bright.

TIMELINES AND PRIORITIES

Bright has created a list of known issues and created a 30-60-90-day plan for when those problems will be fixed. Log in to Bright, or visit NVAR.com/bright to view a list of known issues. Bright has been collecting member feedback and tracking subscribers’ concerns through forums such as Facebook groups, local associations, and the support center. In the future, Bright’s goal is to have a community forum for members to share their input and weigh in on topics. Bright encouraged members to continue to provide feedback through the Facebook group, and said they will be improving communication efforts to subscribers, so that members are aware of when and how issues are being resolved. 

ASSOCIATION AND BRIGHT RELATIONSHIP

Bright MLS is owned by 43 associations, which are each shareholders of the organization. The associations do not have contracts with Bright, and association executives are not paid by Bright. Bright’s Board of Directors consists of 29 volunteers – many of which are brokers and day-to- day practitioners. The board does not get paid, but members do receive a stipend for travel expenses. They are nominated and voted on by shareholders.

MOVING FORWARD

“Our charge is to make your lives easier – to bring you the best MLS out there,” Donnellan said.

The new Bright system cannot revert back to MRIS, Donnellan explained. CoreLogic, the vendor that develops the Matrix product, is the same system that MRIS used. Matrix 360 is their newest product and CoreLogic is no longer supporting the old versions. “Having said that, there are some things we can do to configure that to bring back prominent features of MRIS,” he said.

NVAR members can continue to provide feedback and get the latest Bright updates by visiting NVAR.com/bright.