Zenlist, MRED team up to launch MLS mobile app

One of the largest MLS regions in the country is partnering up for a mobile application.

Midwest Real Estate Data — which manages Chicagoland’s MLS — is integrating its data system with Zenlist, allowing all MRED agents and their clients to access the more user-friendly mobile platform.

“One of our top subscriber requests has been to provide a better mobile app experience for the MLS,” MRED President and CEO Rebecca Jensen said. “Working with Zenlist provides that alternative system … meeting our subscribers where they are working the most.”

More than 5,000 agents within the MRED MLS region are already using Zenlist, including agents at @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, which has an agreement with the company. 

Thad Wong, @properties Christie’s International Real Estate co-founder, said agents like using Zenlist because it allows their clients to browse for themselves, via a code provided by the agent they are working with, which “reinforces the relationship between the agent and the consumer by having their search in a portal that the agent also has access to.”

When agents rely exclusively on MRED to set up an MLS search for their clients, it is “a disservice” because the “search experience and content” sent to clients was “embarrassing” in comparison to what companies like Redfin, Zillow or Trulia offer, Wong said.

Zenlist, whose founder and CEO is Tom MacLeod, can show users all MLS listings, as well as “pre-market” properties listed on the MLS as private — whereas platforms such as Zillow don’t include such pre-market listings in many places. The client portal allows direct communication with agents.

Users eventually will be able to use Zenlist to edit listings, access documents and do everything they can do on a desktop within the MLS.

“You can imagine an agent is in the field all the time, and if they can’t use their software in the field and have to like tether onto a desktop, it’s a huge time suck for them,” MacLeod said.

Agents subscribed to MRED will gain access to a basic version of Zenlist, allowing them and their clients to use the client portal, enhanced search capabilities and mobile app, according to a news release. The mobile app accounts for 70 percent of all use by agents and buyers on Zenlist, MacLeod said. 

Once finished, the integration of MRED’s MLS data with Zenlist will allow agents to ditch toggling between the two platforms to do their work. The rollout is “90 percent there” and will take place this spring, MacLeod said. One feature yet to be implemented is the ability for agents to add and edit listings through Zenlist; this capability will be added in the coming months, he said.

The basic version of Zenlist for MRED subscribers will allow agents to enter, edit and search listings and share them with clients at no cost, with the option to upgrade to a premium version of the software. The premium version allows agents to add an unlimited number of clients to the platform, share clients with other agents and also gives access to “more advanced features around understanding client behavior,” MacLeod said.

His goal for the future of Zenlist is to continue pushing collaborations with the local multiple listing services in other regions across the country, he said. The company has already done so in San Francisco and Columbia, South Carolina, as well as Napa, Sonoma and Maroon counties in California. 

“There’s about 500 multiple listing services across the U.S., right?” MacLeod said. “Our goal is to become a consistent front-end software application for all of those … So, we’re working with four today, and there’s 496 to go.”

With this move, Zenlist will be another option in MRED’s portfolio of MLS platforms, alongside connectMLS and the upcoming integration with Paragon Connect, according to the release.