Upstream Platform Powered by CoreLogic® Now Available; Offers Transformational Service to Brokers and Their Tech Partners
Upstream announced a new developer agreement in February of this year. I’m happy to report that the Upstream platform is now live and in production. Currently, individual brokers can store and distribute their own data, including property listings, high-resolution images, branded media and roster data. Upstream holds the potential to transform our industry and deliver broad new efficiencies, offering brokerages these capabilities for the first time.
CoreLogic’s developments for Upstream will allow brokerages to leverage the benefits of curating listings in their MLS while also enhancing those listings with additional high-fidelity information from the brokerage. For example, before Upstream, virtual tour vendors received watermarked and often low-resolution images of a property from the MLS, while each individual broker had to enter (by hand) additional photos of the agent, the broker’s branding, the office, team, bios and contact info, adding to the time it takes to get listings to market. With Upstream, the virtual tour vendor receives the listing images in high resolution, without watermarks and with enriched broker branding information all at once. No double entry, no industry-wide inefficiency. This will allow brokers to leverage a single point of entry to syndicate the listing and broker information to their critical technology providers and partners. Virtual tours are only one example. Every category of technology used by the broker has a benefit opportunity with Upstream.
Today, Upstream offers brokers complete control of listing distribution and syndication through high availability and a secure Web API for the first time. This allows rosters and listings to be updated in nearly real-time intervals across all broker systems. Because the connection to the database mirrors the RESO Data Dictionary and integration protocols of CoreLogic’s Trestle™ platform (accessed today by over 650 tech firms), connecting to Upstream is quick, easy and secure.
By the first quarter of next year, brokerages will have the ability to create entire listings in Upstream and publish them to CoreLogic Matrix™ MLS markets where allowed. Support for other MLS systems will follow after successful integration is completed with Matrix. This release will also feature support for customer records like CRM data.
The first brokers joined Upstream in June of this year. Simultaneously, technology vendors who sell to brokers have been able to connect to Upstream and power their application with Upstream data.
The Upstream platform is now available to all broker and technology firms in America. Signing up is simple. Visit www.upstreamre.com/sign-up.html.
One of the most significant benefits to brokers and their technology vendors is cost. With Upstream, small- and mid-sized brokers will have access to the same technology as America’s largest firms. Brokers of all sizes benefit from Upstream because they base their small, flat fee on the size of your firm. The typical brokerage (with less than 25 agents) would only pay a flat $50 monthly subscription. Larger firms benefit from volume discounts where the monthly flat fee could be as low as under a dollar per agent per month.
Upstream has been hosting informational webinars for both brokers and technology firms. Find out more by visiting www.upstreamre.com/updates.
Amy Gorce is principal, Business Development at CoreLogic. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com.
