Center for REALTOR® Technology Web Log

One of the reasons I’m happy to be a part of CRT is the fact that we get to use and create open-source/free software.  This has been something I’ve gone out of my way to do in my career.  Its been an interesting ride doing this in real estate, especially as part of NAR.

Anyway, when I see others using open-source in real estate, it really sticks out in my mind and is still surprising to me.  So, not only was I surprised to read about Professional Mortgage Partner using open source in a REALTOR^®-serving side business, but I was surprised that they are in our backyard and we didn’t even know it.

The article An open source virtual office for realtors by Tina Gasperson, posted on NewsForge today, talks about PMP’s "side business helping realtors set up office portals and inexpensively access the Multiple Listing Service database through the use of open source software."

Matt Lavallee, PMP/Technology’s manager of Web services, says the VOWs he installs for his clients are "price point killers." Other companies license VOWs and charge anywhere from $3,600 to $11,000 per year to access Oracle databases holding listing information, but PMP’s service goes for $400 a year because it uses the MySQL database.

MySQL is good for the realtors and good for PMP because it costs less money on both sides. "It’s very fast and it’s been very solid," Lavallee says. "Another provider that went out of business in October had a $2.5 million Oracle back end. There is no way to recoup that cost doing individual sites. You’d have to capture every single [realtor] and keep them subscribed for five years just to pay it off."

There is more to the article, but I snagged the choice parts.  I recommend reading the whole thing.