Some time ago the Austin Board of REALTORS® (ABoR) announced a change of MLS systems.  Replacing a system called Tempo, which most of us liked quite a bit, would be MLXchange.  The new MLXchange was supposed to have all the bells and whistles and everyone was going to love it.  ABoR even "tested" the system with 350 REALTORS®.  I don't know who tested and approved this system, but they must have bribed to approve it.

The truth about MLXchange is that it has made many of us look like idiots.  Tempo had a Client Gateway, a personalized web page we could set up for clients to receive, view and manage listings that matched their search criteria.  Gateway could be bookmarked for easy access.  The Gateway in MLXchange can't be bookmarked.  Isn't that a step back wards?  In addition to that, if REALTORS® don't set up their MLXchange agent website, their clients may not be able to view listings.  Nobody told us about that.  Sending out listings, the default way to send is within the agent website.  If the agent has not set up the site because they didn't know that they had to, clients would not be able to open the link.  That makes us look incompetent.

Other problems:  we can't use the back button.  That may seem a bit of a lame complaint, but when you are used to clicking back and need to retrain yourself because MLXchange loses your search by clicking back, it is a little frustrating.

Very slow to load.

Agents using Firefox can't use MLXchange. 

It had compatibility issues with Macs when it first came out. 

For agents using the system, the days on market for listings is unreliable. 

The system is incredibly slow and freezes often. 

It causes other applications running at the same time to run more slowly. 

When MLXchange came out, the default report for a listing that we can email client was the agent full report.  This actually supplied information that is supposed to be confidential.  That is a major Board rules violation.  I would get fined for sending out confidential information.  Can I fine the Board?  Although no longer the default report, it is still an option.

When given an MLS number to look up, if we don't know if it is a home for sale, a lease property, a ranch, commercial or whatever, we can't find it without entering in into each available search option.  Tempo allowed us to put a number in and it found the listing regardless of what it was.

Out ability to search by map was much better in Tempo.  We could open a map search in a new window and go back and forth from criteria to map search.  Not only does MLXchange open a map search in the same window, but the window is quite narrow.

I have seen MLXchange display differently on different PCs.  My office mate can't email listings from his laptop, which is newer than mine.  The window that opens for Moe is different than what I see in that there is no "send" button.  One of the PCs in a conference room scrunches lines of data together when displaying listings so you can't read everything.  Some people don't have all the options display in drop-down menus.   That is pretty crazy and very limiting to these agents.

I am considered to be pretty tech savvy by people in my office and many come to me for help.  I started using the MLXchange as soon as it came out, rather than waiting until Tempo was gone and I'm glad I did.  However, that was around 4 months ago and I am still not comfortable with the system.

The best solution is to go back to Tempo, but it doesn't appear that ABoR will even consider that.

So for any of you who are actual clients of REALTORS® in the Austin Board area, please be a little patient with your agent.  Also, please inform your agent if you are having problems seeing listings or in any other way that is related to the MLS.