Black Knight Launches Paragon MLS for Brokers

Black Knight Financial Services released an interesting product this month called Paragon for Brokers. The acronym P for B has already been created. It is an interesting product that addresses a primary complaint that brokers have about any MLS: "It levels the playing field."

The playing field problem manifests itself in a number of ways. First, if agents are using the customer portal (called Client Connect) in the MLS for auto-notification when a new listing matches a client's search criteria, the broker brand is lost. Those emails, which are estimated to be about 100,000,000 per month, are branded to the MLS and the agent. The MLS usually does not support broker branding.

Moreover, when agents adopt the MLS client portal, they are less likely to adopt the broker's system. The same is true of CMA or other reports that are MLS generated. The brokerage has no control over the ability to customize those CMAs to sell the value of the brokerage to the consumer.

Perhaps an equally significant problem is the single sign-on or smart links that are promoted to the agent in the MLS system. The broker cannot hide or eliminate products that they do not want the agent to use, like a showing solution or transaction management solution. Competitive products offered by the MLS make it hard for brokers to drive adoption of the services they offer to the agent.

Paragon for Brokers fixes these and many other problems for the broker.

First, agents will log into the broker's MLS system, not the MLS. That simple behavioral change has enormous ramifications for the broker. It connects the agent to the broker's solution. Paragon is branded to the broker, not the MLS. At launch, some of the reports are branded to the broker and the agent. Some vital reports, like a CMA, are not yet customizable. The broker can dictate what single sign-on links or smart links appear in the system to drive adoption of the broker's technology solutions.

Paragon for Brokers is only available in markets that offer Paragon as the MLS system, because Paragon for Brokers is still the MLS system. Listing input and maintenance is the same, but with one key difference. Listing maintenance for brokers allows for the broker to dictate special required fields. For example, the broker might want to insist on a field for customer source, or sign service request, or anything else that the broker requires. That data is made available back to the broker via the MLSs' RETS server or Web API.

Another significant feature in the broker customization is the ability to control communications. The broker will manage the system message of the day, the training calendar, and other such communications that naturally appear in any MLS system. Again, the broker is speaking directly to their agents, not the MLS speaking to the agents. The broker can also load up all of their unique documents to the system.

Brokers who do not have an intranet my want to consider this application. Paragon for brokers is the same MLS system the agents would access though the MLS, but customized to look and feel like the brokerage is providing the system. Chip McAvoy danced like a cat on a hot tin roof when I asked about pricing, stating only that it would be less than $10. A lot of the cost is related to supporting the users, which is an elective. Some of the Paragon MLS clients are planning to provide the support, some brokers plan to provide the support, others may want Paragon support. Support is the key element that predicates the price.

Like any new product release, there are a few potential shortcomings. A key note for me is the inability to make the customer records in the system available via an API. They only support export. There are some other shortcomings, like limitations to the CMA, but it's not fair to pick on a product that is in its first days of launch. The pilot market for Paragon for Brokers is MiRealSource – the MLS covering much of Michigan, including Detroit.