Two regional real estate MLS systems in Ontario have joined forces to provide services to 22 boards and associations and more than 13,000 Realtors.
The Ontario Collective (OC) and Ontario Regional Technology & Information Systems (ORTIS), have signed a Transition Agreement to blend their two separate systems into one common shared regional MLS system.
Steve Dickie, chair of the OC, says: “For going on decades now, progressive Realtors and associations have been working to break down the artificial walls that have separated them. This initiative will significantly enhance the opportunities and services for our Realtor members as well as their clients.”
“From the beginning, this has been a member-centric process where we have put the needs of the Realtor first and foremost,” says Brad Johnstone, ORTIS chair. “Realtors and their clients all have the same wants, needs and expectations, regardless of the size and location of the association they belong to.”
Johnstone says, “The systems our two groups developed independently of one another are powered by the same stable, secure, proven and reliable technology, and both were developed by Realtors for Realtors.
Both groups are using CoreLogic’s Matrix system to power their MLS services. Matrix is used by more than 700,000 Realtors in North America and 32,000 in Canada, the company says.
Combining the two systems into a seamless one will result in a “best-of-breed” solution by taking the lessons both groups learned in their individual regional projects and bringing them together, say the groups. “Central to this project from the beginning is the recognition that members are equal. No matter what part of the province a Realtor practices in they have the same need for high standards and dependable technology,” say the groups in a news release.
“We’re going to take the best of both systems and combine them together to make something even better,” says Kati Strickland, project manager of the OC. “We’re working with CoreLogic now to align the needed resources and flesh out our project plan with the objective of having members online with it in the fall of 2019.”
The OC is comprised of boards and associations in Bancroft, Kawartha Lakes, London and St. Thomas, North Bay, Northumberland Hills, Peterborough and The Kawarthas, Quinte, Grey Bruce Owen Sound, Southern Georgian Bay, The Lakelands, Tillsonburg and Woodstock-Ingersoll.
ORTIS includes boards and associations from Barrie, Brantford, Cambridge, Guelph, Huron- Perth, Kitchener-Waterloo, Mississauga, Niagara, Oakville, Milton and Simcoe.
