Doorify Real Estate Podcast

Meet the Board: Linda Trevor – Enhancing MLS Systems and Broker Practices

• Doorify MLS

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This episode brings another perspective from our Meet the Board series, where we’re joined by Linda Trevor, Founding Agent of Compass Raleigh/Cary Real Estate. 

She talks about the push for MLS data accuracy, why brokers need flexibility, and how recent changes like standardizing data are reshaping the industry. Linda also explains some of the adjustments needed for systems like Paragon and how agents are now equipped with more options and support.

Listen now and stay informed on the future of MLS!

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

  • The critical role of accurate MLS data and its impact on the real estate market
  • Transitioning to multiple MLS platforms and the resulting challenges and opportunities
  • The future of MLS tools and options for agents and clients

Links from this episode:

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Linda Trevor [00:00:00]:
If the MLS is not correct, nothing else is going to be correct. It's our gateway, and it's up to me as the broker to make sure I have perfection through our MLS that'll syndicate to hundreds or thousands of probably platforms at this point. And then on the broker side, I explained to agents that this transition to choice is for everyone's best interest. No one likes to be told what to do. So with this efforts to give the members or the subscribers more options, it also has probably uncovered some of the growing pains, maybe as doors glorify now, but where Paragon has fallen short. And Paragon's obviously been the majority user, including myself.

Matt Fowler [00:00:46]:
Hi, everybody, it's Matt Fowler again. I'm the executive director of Doorify MLS in North Carolina. All of our subscribers that tune in to these podcasts will know that we are doing a series called Meet the Board. And that's why we're joined here by our special guests, Linda Trevor. Hey, Linda.

Linda Trevor [00:01:02]:
Hey, Matt. Good morning.

Matt Fowler [00:01:04]:
Good morning. Thanks so much for joining us today. It's. It's great of you to take even more time out of your. Your work life when you could be out there building your network and making money. You're either in a board meeting or you're going on a trip that we need you to do, or you're recording these podcasts for us. We really appreciate all the time you give us, too.

Linda Trevor [00:01:21]:
Thank you. It's my pleasure. I'm honored to serve. It's a big piece of the puzzle for our industry, and I'm constantly learning, so. But I'm honored to be here.

Matt Fowler [00:01:29]:
Yeah. I think we both really feel that way about the vital role that MLS plays. And that's one of the reasons we're having this podcast, is because we've decided, as an industry and certainly as an MLS here in the Triangle area, that we want to be the best MLS in the country. And we want home buyers and sellers to know that MLS is the most fair and open housing network in the world. And there are people meeting all over the place, literally all over the world, trying to bring mls, what we do into their countries. And it's because it works so well. You know, it is. There's room for improvement in everything.

Matt Fowler [00:02:02]:
I think we've made some changes this last year to even make the system more fair and open and transparent, but those are not just words that sit in our mission statement. Linda, you and I both talk about this all the time, and we just got back from a meeting out in Seattle where we got to hear Your CEO talk about issues in the industry. And you know, we're in the audience where people are asking questions and, you know, we're all really engaged in this conversation at a national level. And you're there to be the voice for realtors out there, you know, meeting people today to go see a house and you deal with these issues in real life. And I guess that's really my first question for you. How did you get into real estate? How long you've been doing that?

Linda Trevor [00:02:41]:
So I'm now celebrating year 26, which is surprising to me to even say that number. But yeah, it's just been a great journey. I got my license back in 98 when I moved to the Triangle from upstate New York. That's where I grew up. Went to college up there. Got a master's in education. Thought I was going to be a guidance counselor.

Matt Fowler [00:03:01]:
And you are sort of like you're guiding, counseling people into a home, right?

Linda Trevor [00:03:05]:
Yeah, Master's in counseling and education has fared well. Also a period of time in criminal justice. So I was a parole and probation officer for nearly six years between New York State as well as a little bit in North Carolina. And I say just carry a different caseload now.

Matt Fowler [00:03:20]:
Wow. You know, I think Eddie Brown on our board was in law enforcement.

Linda Trevor [00:03:23]:
He was, yeah, he was a police officer. So yeah, I learned a lot in that. And when I came to North Carolina and we didn't have cell phones at that point, I remember taking like a walkie talkie out in the field and my superintendent at parole, she would. Anyways. Anyways, I realized pretty quickly it was a fairly unsafe job, but it did get me to know the back roads of Wake and adjacent.

Matt Fowler [00:03:47]:
So I learned a lot quickly, literally and figuratively. No doubt that's going to get to know a place pretty fast. Well, so upstate New York, like Albany.

Linda Trevor [00:03:56]:
Area, way upstate Finger Lakes area. So Geneva was my hometown. And then I went out to Cortland.

Matt Fowler [00:04:01]:
That's a beautiful place. I know Geneva a little bit. It's a beautiful place. I love that part of the world. So what is a little known fact about Linda? What do people not know about Linda? You just shared a couple.

Linda Trevor [00:04:10]:
Yeah, that part's been fun to share. People are usually surprised. But I also really give a lot of my. My. Some of my credit to my enthusiasm for whatever I do in work to my uncle who was a. Just a pioneer in the state of Alaska. And he started a business in probably the 60s and 70s. He moved away and started some businesses up there.

Linda Trevor [00:04:36]:
And then in the 80s when I was thinking about college and didn't realize my parents hadn't saved anything. And they were like, so sorry, you're gotta figure this out. My uncle said, well, I'll pay your first, you know, your first tuition if you come and work for me in Alaska. So, yeah, that was my first summer as a guide. I literally like was doing dishes and whatever Grunts did and that I learned a lot. And then I went back two more summers and loved it and met people from all over the world and saw places in Alaska that, you know, people only see in photos. But I learned a lot about work ethic and again, just customer service and taking care of folks because we toured. I was whitewater rafting guide, I drove the bus, I cooked meals, put up tents, whatever.

Matt Fowler [00:05:23]:
Yeah, that was before you went to college.

Linda Trevor [00:05:25]:
So it was in between college summers. So in between, like, yeah, before my first year of college, in between freshman and sophomore. So for three summers in a row there.

Matt Fowler [00:05:36]:
Wow, that's amazing. You go back?

Linda Trevor [00:05:37]:
Yeah, we went back. I've been back twice and once was to take my husband for his birthday. And we're talking about actually going next summer. My uncle is still a consultant with the company. He now lives in Seattle. He went on to do whale watching business and kayaking, but he still consults with Wildlife Adventures and Kirk is his best friend. And we're talking about going back up next summer altogether when my uncle is still healthy and can go to.

Matt Fowler [00:06:03]:
Well, fantastic. That's so interesting. I have not been and I've always wanted to go. We're working on that.

Linda Trevor [00:06:09]:
Skip the cruise part. Find these tour companies that really are backwoods and treat you with, you know, white glove service and cabins and amazing food and wine. But they know the way to see the countryside instead of just.

Matt Fowler [00:06:23]:
I love doing these interviews because I get to say things like, I'm going to put a link in the show notes to what you were just talking about so it can remind us and everybody, you know, the way to do Alaska. Right. So, so cool.

Linda Trevor [00:06:34]:
I've actually sent you the link to the company.

Matt Fowler [00:06:36]:
They don't seem attractive to me. I don't think you've really been there. You've just been on the boat. Right, right. Well, so. So speaking about, if I could segue into things that, that you're passionate about, tell me about bringing a new homeowner into a house. What makes that a thing that makes you get up in the morning?

Linda Trevor [00:06:52]:
It's just, I don't know, it's something that has been really Special to me and important to me. It's not about price point. I was working with some young kids, I call them kids at this point this weekend. And you know, they've got a three month old and they don't have a lot of family in the area and they're really looking to me for guidance and I'm looking under every piece of the crawl space and this sealing stains and trying to, you know, just prepare them for what's ahead in homeownership. But I take it seriously and I, I feel some of the burden, but I enjoy it and I know they're going to find something. We, we missed out on multiple offers this weekend, but it's all right, we'll get the next one or when it's meant to.

Matt Fowler [00:07:32]:
Yeah, the market, my niece is buying. We were talking about this the other day, buying, and the market's pretty spicy. Again, there's just multiple offers.

Linda Trevor [00:07:38]:
Yeah, it just depends on, you know, conditions. Everything prices, say, gets them in the door, but when it's in good condition, it usually drives up some multiple offers.

Matt Fowler [00:07:47]:
And there's some good advice for the sellers out there. Yeah, yeah. So, so, you know, Alinda, this, this, this interview is, is for our, our subscribers, the 15,000 or so brokers and agents and appraisers and property managers and home inspectors that, that are in our network out there. And you and I, we have a lot of experience. You just talked about, you know, a long history in bringing people in, into housing. I've been in the MLS space for a really long time, 30 years. Talking about it yesterday, you know, from the book all the way to where we are now with this standardized, interconnected data systems. And you and I made a bunch of changes to, to these, to the lives of everyone from the Choice project to introducing Flex MLS and Matrix into the market, to converting our data to standard Dictionary our name.

Matt Fowler [00:08:31]:
I want to try and explain to our subscribers who watch these, these interviews how we got there. Right. So I was hired three years ago. You guys said run this thing like a business. And you know, neither of us really understood what that meant fully, but we did have an architecture, a plan that we'd seen other people do that we felt was the right thing for us. And we did that. And we're very confident that the strategy was the right strategy. But we had this collection of vendors who did the job.

Matt Fowler [00:08:59]:
They did, and some of them did a great job and some of them not so much. And our subscribers, who might just be primarily Paragon users, for example, I don't Think they have a full picture of what really happens, who's responsible for what. It's not about blame, it's just about explaining how we got today. So maybe, maybe let's. The way to connect with that maybe is to talk about this new brain. And we just changed our name to DoraPodel. Connecting people with property, and we mean homebuyers and sellers. We also mean connecting other software platforms to our data so that you as a breaker can have choice about what's the best piece of software to use for your customer.

Matt Fowler [00:09:35]:
And there, there's a lot going on there. But maybe rewind to the. To the first part of 2024. You know, we're in the middle of Paragon being out of date and you know the problems we're still, we're still dealing with. I had a meeting with ICE this morning about old photos that are missing. We added 600,000 photos over the week or 600,000 listing old listings. Got photos over the weekend and that's in October. So we're just telling you that, you know, we're acknowledging that there were rocky bits and they're still.

Matt Fowler [00:10:02]:
It's still a challenge to keep the data in sync. I think we're coming to the end of all that. And now that we have share with us a little bit, how you. How you look back at that?

Linda Trevor [00:10:11]:
Yeah, I look at the big picture. You do this every day, breathe it every hour. I'm in the MLS every day and I know how critical is. I think I even tell my homeowners when I'm pitching for listings is that the MLS is not correct. Nothing else is going to be correct. It's our gateway and it's up to me as the broker to make sure I have perfection through our MLS that'll syndicate to hundreds or thousands of probably platforms at this point. And then on the broker side, I explained to agents that this transition to choice is for everyone's best interest. No one likes to be told what to do.

Linda Trevor [00:10:46]:
No one likes to be told there's only one option. And so with this efforts to give the members or the subscribers more options, it also has probably uncovered some of the growing pains, maybe as DOFI now, but where Paragon has fallen short and Paragon's obviously been the majority user, including myself, I just, you know, as a team, we chose to ride it out and we still are at this point. But I know that there's, you know, there's great things that are going to happen because of it. It's just a lot of growing pains. For me personally, but we're navigating through it. And I know there'll be, like I said, there'll be even better ways to enhance what we do in our, in our business every day.

Matt Fowler [00:11:30]:
I appreciate that confidence, Linda. It has been turbulent for Paragon users, and it was necessary. I want our subscribers to understand, to translate the data, to do what we did, to upgrade our data systems to a national standard so that we can plug a bunch of new stuff into it. Not so that Paragon would work better, but so that we, we could go, we could move beyond Paragon for those people who wanted to do that. And Paragon's ability, or the company is called ice, his ability to update the software that is called Paragon is the. Is how our subscribers, as you just said, kind of judge how we did this. You know, we don't write the Paragon software. Those guys do.

Matt Fowler [00:12:09]:
And we did convert to a national standard, which everybody is making them do. And 500,000, something MLS's across the country that are in our, in our group and in my long experience in the industry, ICE and what's now ICE isn't the best at it, at doing this, this, this data management on what we refer to as the backend. So we built, and we hired a new company to build the backend. And they have, if you, you know, call a random realtor across the country in our space and ask them who has the best API with the best backend computer systems. That's fbs. So we had them build our backend system. The front. ICE was willing to use that data to keep the Paragon users that they had, and they kept three out of four.

Matt Fowler [00:12:51]:
76% of our subscribers are still using Paragon today. As you said, they stuck with it. And now they're being asked to convert their. Or to redo their saved searches, which is a big lift. I talked to somebody yesterday who was trying to work their way through 200 because they've been there in old Paragon for. Not for 10, 11 years. 11 years this fall. So I want our subscribers to know that it's not my staff that can't bring the searches over.

Matt Fowler [00:13:17]:
This is going from Paragon to Paragon, and you would really think that ICE would be able to do that. We were able to get the contacts over, but since the data has been translated, they're not able or willing to bring the same searches over. And that's just a detail that we should talk about.

Linda Trevor [00:13:31]:
Yeah, no, and I'm dealing with that with a couple brokers who come to Me, including one on my team who has 50 searches saved. But it's been an opportunity for me to say, and again, I hope it's okay. I say, like, let's put them into the platform. Like, again, we have options if we want to eventually use if Paragon figures out some of their things later. But here's your opportunity to reconnect with your clients. There's no way that all 50 are hot and heavy right now and searches. So take your top 10, get those prioritized. We've got everybody else in the CRM now.

Linda Trevor [00:14:05]:
And then just reset your searches. It gave me a chance to reach out to a couple folks too, like, hey, we're changing platforms and embrace it, especially when we're not, you know, over inundated with transactions right now.

Matt Fowler [00:14:17]:
Sure. Yeah. You know, that's so smart, Alinda, to just tell that person they don't have to live in this place forever. I've been telling people, ask your customer, right? Ask the client, which one of these emails do you like better? Is there? You know, most of these platforms have an app, a customer app that, you know, says Linda when you log in. But it's, it's. It's the, it's. The customer has picked you out of a list of people they can deal with, and now that communicates between you and them in the app. Our focus for next year is to make sure that that app goes off with price changes and updates as fast as any app in the App Store.

Matt Fowler [00:14:51]:
And in order to do that, we. We had to do all this standardization. But I think the focus on the customer is really what is my takeaway from what we've been working on for the last couple of years. It's what our legal advisors, it's one of the strategists you're talking about is don't forget the customer. The customer experience, the home buyer or seller. We have to do our work really well to make sure that that Compass app in that in their pocket is functional just as fast as anything else on the App Store and is accurate and complete, of course. So that's a great opportunity to switch this around and say it's not necessary. It's like, don't focus as much on what the.

Matt Fowler [00:15:29]:
What your agent or broker thinks is the best one to use. Let's skip them and go talk to the customer. That's who we're really trying to satisfy, right?

Linda Trevor [00:15:38]:
Yeah. Yeah. That it's easy for them and, you know, easy for them to navigate. And again, it's all about accuracy. I think Buyers are more fearful than ever that they're going to miss something. That's why they have three on their phone, three different apps, including what I am emailing them because you know, they just think they're going to miss it. So it's coming from.

Matt Fowler [00:15:59]:
Yeah. And when the market's moving fast in some of those little hot neighborhoods.

Linda Trevor [00:16:02]:
Yep.

Matt Fowler [00:16:02]:
You know, a house is up and gone the first weekend. So our focus at the MLS is to make sure that when people swipe down on their phones that everybody's app who uses our data gets it in, you know, some second time. The speed is critical and if, you know, if one app goes off first, always the consumer starts to rely on that one. And I want it to say that's, that's, that's my focus. So Linda, I guess we, we've had some, some questions coming from subscribers. We hear from our subscribers all the time through the help desk surveys and other stuff that we do about the whole like consumer portal. Why did you change your name? And I want to hear your reaction to that. And you know, the strategy that, that we talk about all the time in the boardroom is this B2B2C idea where the MLS as an industry has been business to business forever and then over the last couple of years for some MLS is a lot longer.

Matt Fowler [00:16:55]:
Houston for example, at HAR.com has had a consumer facing Portal brand vehicle for 20 years. We've just launched ours. And it's not to replace the Realtor in the transaction. In fact it's the, it's the opposite of that. Instead of, instead of charging you for these leads like almost every other site does for that connection with the consumer. The thing that makes Doorify different is who owns it and it's you guys. It's not owned by some out of state company. It's owned by the realtors in this community.

Matt Fowler [00:17:24]:
And we're going to be the farm to table access to data the best, local, most complete and that's going to strengthen the Realtor community. And over, over time, as we've talked about, Doorify will be a, a prime source of leads and for consumer connections. When somebody asks about one of your listings, it goes directly to you with no funny business. Yeah, so, so maybe tell the subscribers a little bit about that story and how you feel.

Linda Trevor [00:17:48]:
Again we know, you know, as a board we've been working on this for a long time and so I've also had the pleasure of interacting with other brokers around the country or MLS industry leaders knowing how successful it has been in other marketplaces. So I've never doubted that. And I knew that that was going to be in our future for change. And why not? I mean, this is a robust area for technology. Why can't we be one of the other leaders here in the area bringing, again, accurate data, an easy place for consumers to use? But again, I know I have the added trust because I sit with you guys all the time, but I think right now we're just trying to show the members that they can trust us, that this is going to be a transparent website and they will get the leads. There's. There's nothing that's costing anything and nobody's paying for anything. And again, it's just another source for, you know, for our whole area for the consumers to go to.

Matt Fowler [00:18:48]:
Yeah, we're not going to sell it. I heard a broker in a meeting the other day whisper to the person sitting next to them, they're just going to sell this to somebody, you know, one of the big national brands. And I think that's a compliment. Like it looks good enough to sell to a big national brand. And that's the point. But we'll never do that because this is owned by the Bricker, you know, group in this area. We want to grow that group. So, you know, outlining areas might join a brand if it's really popular.

Matt Fowler [00:19:12]:
Centered on. Centered on Wake and Durham and the. But it's bigger.

Linda Trevor [00:19:16]:
The other thing I. Well, I was just going to mention the other thing I remind members is, you know, the word Triangle is no longer necessarily accurate, you know, of what. Where we serve, we're 16 or 16 and counting counties. Right. So we're much larger than that.

Matt Fowler [00:19:32]:
Yeah, we say we've stretched the Triangle so it doesn't really shape like that anymore. All the way from, you know, Allomance to Smithfield to now outlying places like the data share with Fayetteville Long. Yeah, so. So, so how do you see. Looking forward a little bit, Linda, as we wrap this up, thinking about 2025, we have this, this vending machine concept where we're going to be adding still more options for people. That's going to be a challenge for my staff. But for the brokers who are using a paragon or matrix or flex mls, you're going to see a lot less change because those platforms are maturing. The data quality and completeness is getting, you know, is done well, I think across all three platforms, adding new ones is just going to be bringing options for people who want something different than those three.

Matt Fowler [00:20:18]:
We have New CMA platforms, new MLS front ends, a new way to add listings. How would you tell people who have kind of, you know, gone through the turbulent part of choice, how would you get them to look forward to 2025? And what would you tell those teams that are thinking about next year?

Linda Trevor [00:20:34]:
I would just ask them to keep an open mind and to continually look at what's being offered and give things a try. Most of these things, you know, will have trial periods, but it's all to. To bring benefit to what we do every day. So I'm excited to try things out as they come up, see what fits, see what works for myself or our team. And again, you know, I know we vet these folks as a board. Certainly you, you guys as staff go to a lot of, you know, trouble to try to make sure we've got some good fit here for, for the members. So I would just encourage everyone to, you know, again, keep an open mind, try out these different options that come available.

Matt Fowler [00:21:13]:
Yeah, we use the word curate a lot so that we know, you know, we've looked at these at the platforms and we know that they're real and that they follow, you know, good data policies and all that stuff. So thanks for that and thanks for joining us today. Linda, if you are a subscriber, I think you heard that we have an actual realtor person that's out there working with people every day and then she gives it her time and comes in and helps us make these decisions on, on your behalf out there as a subscriber. And she's given us a great interview today. So thanks for joining us and I'll see you at a board meeting. I think it's a week from Tuesday, so.

Linda Trevor [00:21:47]:
Yep, it'll be soon enough.

Matt Fowler [00:21:48]:
Yeah, probably at the end of our meeting. I'll see.

Linda Trevor [00:21:52]:
Yep, I'll be there.

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