Baldwin Realtors — representing about 3,500 agents in Baldwin County, Alabama — recently took on the tall order of moving its entire membership off a legacy platform onto a next-generation MLS system.
The transition from Paragon to Perchwell followed a three-month parallel period and an intensive training effort — 135 sessions, including 60 in person and many held at brokerage offices.
For Perchwell CEO Brendan Fairbanks, a 2023 HousingWire Rising Star, the initiative represents something bigger than a single conversion; a different pace of innovation for an industry that needs it.
He sat down with HousingWire to discuss why this moment matters, what agents actually need from their technology and what the next generation of MLS software means for the profession.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Jonathan Delozier: Baldwin Realtors is being described as part of a relatively historic moment — the first MLS in more than 25 years to move an entire membership off a legacy platform onto a next-generation MLS system. From your perspective, why is this significant for the real estate industry?
Brendan Fairbanks: In MLS technology, not much has changed in the last 20 years — the systems that were revolutionary when they arrived did a great deal for this industry. But most of them are largely the same today while software that agents use everywhere else in their lives has kept evolving. We have an admittedly corny saying at Perchwell; “The product we demo today is the worst version you will ever see, because everyone is coming to work tomorrow to make it better.” We take that seriously and are focused on being the technology partner that agents can count on to help them grow and thrive as the marketplace evolves into the future.
Delozier: For the average agent, a technology conversion can initially feel like simply learning a new system. What do you believe is fundamentally different about the experience Perchwell enables, and how could that change the way agents work day to day?
Fairbanks: We consistently sit with members in training sessions and office visits — sharing prototypes and continuously evolving the platform based on their needs. Day to day, our product shows up as a fast, professional tool shaped around how agents work now: a rapid search flow that caters to buy- and sell-side agents, modern client collaboration and insights you can’t get without the treasure trove of MLS data. We’re building a product to help agents do their best work every day.
Delozier: The MLS has been at the center of how real estate professionals search, list, analyze and share property information for decades. What does Baldwin’s move say about how the role of the MLS itself is evolving — and what should agents expect from their MLS going forward?
Fairbanks: The MLS is central to the American real estate market as it is the trusted record of what is listed and what has sold. It is also local by nature with every market having its own data needs and business rules/requirements, which must be encoded in the MLS software platform. That has been the hard part for technology, because systems customized market by market have been very difficult to modernize, with each improvement rebuilt one market instance at a time. I read Baldwin’s move as confidence in a new architecture for the MLS model.
Modern technology building blocks make it possible for a relative newcomer like us to build one core platform that can simply be configured to each MLS’s needs, removing the burden of building/operating separate instances for each market while giving MLSs even deeper and wider localization capabilities.
Delozier: What does that mean for agents specifically?
Fairbanks: For agents, that means the software platform that they use every day will get a lot better and more connected and, perhaps most importantly given today’s rapidly changing market, will improve and evolve constantly. Agents should expect their MLS to be the best professional tool they use each day, and it’s our mission at Perchwell to deliver exactly that.
Delozier: One of the biggest promises of next-generation technology is giving agents more time to focus on clients and business rather than navigating cumbersome systems. Where have you seen that promise become tangible for Baldwin’s members?
Fairbanks: Agents can be working with dozens of clients and prospects at any given time, pitching new business, supporting active buyers, quarterbacking the listing and sales process of multiple properties at once and so on. The MLS platform is the software that underpins a lot of that work, and Perchwell is built to empower agents to provide high end service to more clients more easily — consumers get better service and agents grow their businesses.
For example, we recently launched a new Workspaces feature suite for agents and their buyers. It’s a dedicated place to keep a buyer’s search process organized, rather than strewn across various listing websites, emails, texts and forwarded links. Both agent and client can engage directly on the listings in that library, reacting and responding in the same place. Nothing gets lost in an inbox and neither side has to reconstruct what was already shared, because the whole conversation history sits with the listings themselves.
Delozier: What about mobile?
Fairbanks: Agents spend a ton of time in the field away from their desks, but much of the legacy MLS software stack was built pre-smartphone. On the contrary, every piece of Perchwell, from search and market analysis to listing entry and client collaboration, has been designed to work synergistically across desktop and mobile apps. Whether an agent is in their office or on the go with a client, they now have the entire MLS at their fingertips.
Delozier: With 3,500 agents making the transition, Baldwin had a unique view into how professionals respond when a foundational piece of their daily technology changes. What did you learn about what agents actually need from their technology, and from their MLS leadership, to embrace that change?
Fairbanks: Agents tend to accept a lot of change when the tool in front of them visibly improves because of what they said. At Baldwin we built workflows side by side with agents, sat in on training sessions and office visits and logged what we heard. Agents have seen significant platform improvements ever since we first introduced ourselves, and we continue to ship more enhancements every day. That speed is important to MLS leadership. When the Baldwin team hears a concern from an agent, they can bring it to us and ultimately point that member to an improvement in Perchwell shortly thereafter. The MLS’s core technology keeps pace with the needs of its community, and that’s great all around.
Delozier: If we look ahead five or ten years, what do you think this transition represents beyond Baldwin Realtors — and what might agents ultimately look back on as the biggest change this new generation of MLS technology brought to their profession?
Fairbanks: I’d be cautious about predicting a decade ahead, but I think the change agents look back on will be the edge their MLS gave them over what consumers can find on their own. Consumers already see more listing information than ever, so an agent’s value rests on the insight and service around that. The MLS is foundational to that — market insight drawn from the most complete and accurate local data plus software that keeps the agent at the center of the process as their client’s guide. Real estate transactions are extremely high stakes, so the software platform supporting them should be cutting edge.
