Conversations about the MLS industry, creating software, and employee ownership.

I’m very excited to announce that the Tucson Association of REALTORS® MLS (TAR/MLS), representing approximately 6,000 members in Ariziona, has selected FBS and our flexmls Web System for their next MLS system.  The TAR/MLS Committee and Board of Directors engaged in a very thorough review of the major MLS vendors and concluded unanimously earlier this week that FBS and the flexmls Web system was the best company and system for them.

From a company perspective, getting the opportunity to work with the staff and members at TAR/MLS is a huge win for FBS.  TAR/MLS will be one of FBS’s largest customers and furthers our goal to provide great service to MLSs of all sizes.  From a personal perspective, I’m excited to get to work with such an incredibly well-run organization.  Getting to know and work with Wes Wiggins, Brian Case, Scott Weidamoyer, Andy Gordon and others at the MLS has been great and we’re all excited to get to work together on the conversion.

I’m also excited to get to work with the forward-thinking Board at TAR/MLS.  I’d like to give a special shout-out to Director John Mijac who, with Wes Wiggins and staff, put in hundreds of hours (or more) leading the group evaluating the various vendors.  I’ve gotten to know John pretty well over the last several months and found him to be exacting and exhaustive in his research and presentation skills.  John left no stones unturned in his review but, if he had, they would have been uncovered by President Kim Clifton, who conducted one of the most detailed executive interviews I’ve ever been through.  I left that meeting incredibly impressed with Kim, and plenty exhausted as well.  Jim Adams from Long Realty also dug into our RETS services and related processes to ensure that we had the right tools to feed the back-office and other systems they and other brokers require.  Overall, the entire Board was thorough and objective in their review and we learned a lot from their professional review process.

Getting to work with all these great people is what makes this business so rewarding.  The months ahead with all the conversion work and introduction of a new system to the members of TAR/MLS undoubtedly will be made much easier because of the great people involved.  All the employee-owners of FBS sincerely thank the leadership at TAR/MLS for trusting us with such a great responsibility, and we look forward to living up to your expectations!