Delta Media Group recently announced “Local Showings,” an independent full-featured property showing software and service, launching as early as the first week in April. According to the company, Delta Media currently integrates with hundreds of MLS boards nationwide and more than 350 real estate firms, covering 90% of all property data in the U.S.
Earlier this year, Delta Media Group polled the real estate industry to determine the level of interest in a new, independent showing service, following the announcement that Zillow acquired ShowingTime. The acquisition received mixed reviews in the industry, prompting Delta Media Group to release its own independent showing service.
“Local Showings” by Delta Media will be available to non-Delta clients as a standalone iOS and Android mobile app. For Delta clients, “Local Showings” will be seamlessly integrated into its all-in-one DeltaNET platform.
Delta Media is committing to a Phase II development of “Local Showings, which will expand call center support and add technical resources with new functionality, including capabilities that reportedly do not exist for current showing products.
“We will provide a frictionless experience for brokerages, local MLS boards and agents,” said Delta Media’s CEO and Owner Michael Minard in a statement. “We are not trying to reinvent the wheel. ‘Local Showings’ is intuitive, so agents don’t need to go through hours and hours of training to understand it: It just works.”
“We also don’t want to disrupt any established budgets,” Minard said. “We plan to come in either at the price firms were paying, or even less, so they can avoid funding a company that is no longer a disruptor but a competitor.”
The 100% family-owned and -operated company also stated it “guarantees” not to sell or be acquired.
“Delta Media has been independent for 27 years, and we have been in the trenches with independent real estate companies our entire existence. We’re going to continue our independence,” Minard added.
“We have no outside investors, no VC funds behind us and no Wall Street investors influencing what we do. We only succeed when our clients succeed. That’s why we are guaranteeing remaining independent in our contracts, so MLSs, brokerages, teams and agents don’t have to go through this again,” said Minard
According to Delta, “Local Showings” features include:
– Schedule showings: any listing in the MLS, showing a calendar of available times with built-in request capabilities
– Instant notifications: push notifications or text messages sent to agents when a showing is requested or confirmed
– Active listings view: allows modification of notes about the listing
– Contact view: see contacts sorted by buyers or sellers
– Driving tours: dynamically built to see multiple properties with driving instructions
– Activity reports: tracks showing schedule activity. See how many showings have been requested, pending, or denied.
– Feedback view: quickly see feedback on your listings or listings you have shown
– Flexibility: ability to select multiple listings and schedule multiple showings with one click
– Seller Reports: easily share information with homeowners
– Chat: instantly connect and chat with other agents within your local board
During a recent Facebook Live discussion about “Local Showings” by Delta, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®’s Jeff Kennedy commented on current or emerging showing alternatives. He noted, “Most of the companies I’ve come across are either too new, they’re only in one or two cities, or they are an augmentation to an existing service and not a standalone.”
Kennedy added that while many new firms within the showing software space have polished interfaces that “look cool,” they have little or no MLS integrations and that MLS integrations can take years to accomplish.
“Delta Media put up the very first website in the U.S.’ powered by MLS data in 1994. We have been integrating with MLSs ever since,” Minard explained. “For those who select ‘Local Showings,’ it will be a turnkey experience. We already have the MLS board agreements. We update data in five minutes or less for the majority of our MLSs. We know how important a clean data experience is for agents and their clients. Most of the other showing alternatives are just getting started while we have established relationships built over decades.”
For more information, please visit www.deltamediagroup.com.
