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Can a US-style MLS work in the UK? 1000s of agents think so, says OpenBrix

Just weeks away from launching, the challenger portal also reveals its pricing strategy and which high profile agents are backing it.

Nigel Lewis

openbrix

Challenger portal OpenBrix says thousands of estate agents have registered their interest in using the platform ahead of its official launch next month as it prepares to introduce a US-style Multi-Listing System or MLS into the UK.

This will enable agents to offer both internal branches or external competitors the opportunity to jointly market properties on a split-fee basis, a common practice in the US and many other parts of the world, but a concept that has not been tried here before.

OpenBrix will also enable agents to plug in their third-party suppliers into the platform, making it much easier to onboard sales and lettings instructions into their fee-paying networks.

In a video interview filmed yesterday with OpenBrix CEO and former letting agent Adam Pigott (above right)  more details about its pricing model are revealed.

Membership will initially cost £75 a month but will later move to a £1 per property upload model. This means agents of different sizes will pay for usage, rather than the flat fees the big portals normally charge.

Agent backers

And as well as former Countrywide director John Hards and several other high profile agents, OpenBrix now has the backing of David Thomas (main picture, left), who heads up one of the key agent groups looking for alternatives to the traditional portals and in particular Rightmove. Many of its member agents are now Beta-testing the portal.

“For me the MLS concept is a no-brainer because in a world where competing agents offer a very similar service, an agency using OpenBrix can offer a vendor the opportunity to market their property through a much wider network of potential buyers,” says Thomas, who is boss of Nottingham-based agency Liberty Gate.

Piggott says: “We won’t be another Rightmove because OpenBrix will be agent controlled; people like David appreciate us because their data cannot be commercialised in the same way the big portals  do that; because OpenBrix’s agent data is held on their system, not ours. We just connect them all together via blockchain.”

More info

To register your interest with OpenBrix click here to find out more.

August 19, 2020

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