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BrightMLS and Proptech Startup Ocusell Launch Joint Venture
2 days ago
By Arianna Marino
BrightMLS and Ocusell have launched a joint venture to co-develop and license their existing technology solutions, including Ocusell List+ and Bright Listing Manager
The nation’s largest multiple listing service (MLS) and leading multi-MLS listing management platform have launched a joint venture, according to an announcement on Thursday.
BrightMLS and Ocusell will co-develop and license technology solutions and services for brokers, agents and MLSs starting this year. The initial product release features Ocusell’s List+ listing management platform for brokers and ETLs, alongside Bright Listing Manager, an artificial intelligence-driven direct-entry tool for MLSs from Bright Solutions’ software as a service (SaaS) product lineup.
“Our joint venture with Ocusell is part of our vision of breaking down barriers to create a smarter, more efficient marketplace, where brokers have the tools they need to compete as the landscape evolves,” BrightMLS President and CEO Brian Donnellan said in a prepared statement. “We are working together to demonstrate how the MLS can be part of the solution, helping to reduce redundant technologies and make it easier for MLS subscribers to work across platforms, and we’re offering other MLSs the opportunity to join us in challenging the status quo.”
In an interview with Inman, Ocusell founder and CEO Hayden Rieveschl and BrightMLS Chief Strategy and Operations Officer Ted Mucellin said the primary goal of the joint venture is bringing order to a disjointed tech experience for MLS subscribers, brokers and agents, who have the cumbersome task of entering listings into multiple MLSs while staying in compliance with each organization’s rules.
“MLSs for a long time have dealt with brokerages and their organizations, agents within their organizations, that are listing into multiple MLSs,” Rieveschl said. “Seventy percent of brokers are members of two or more MLSs in the United States, so it’s a widespread problem.”
Rieveschl and Mucellin said Ocusell List+™ and Bright Listing Manager solve each side of the listing management equation.
List+ focuses on streamlining listing management for brokers with a centralized dashboard, an autofill feature that fills up to 70 percent of listing data, and the ability to instantly send listings to multiple MLSs. The platform also utilizes AI to generate public remarks and image captions, as well as optimize the order of listing photos.
Meanwhile, the Bright Listing Manager is geared toward MLSs that need a listing management tool for their subscribers, which include licensed brokers, salespeople, and appraisers. Bright Listing Manager, which launched on Sept. 3, offers a mobile-first experience with AI-enabled listing creation, management, and compliance checks.
The duo said their solutions help brokers and subscribers get listings to market 96 percent faster and nearly eliminate compliance and validation errors. BrightMLS is looking to add its teams and branding center solutions to the joint venture, Mucellin said, alongside the co-development of new tools that use AI to boost “efficiency, transparency, and reliability within the real estate ecosystem.”
“The Ocusell group had been developing successfully some listing management and other related tools for a number of years,” Mucellin said.”We got to know these gentlemen, and we realized we were developing a lot of the same stuff and that we could probably provide better services to the industry and more competitive products working jointly.”
“So, the technology they’ve developed, we don’t also have to develop; the technology we’ve developed or are developing, they don’t also have to develop, and our different products fit different segments of the market,” he added. “And so the idea of being able to sell them together and support each other, and especially when it comes to some of the technical problems of inputting fewer listings and displaying listings, made a whole lot more sense than either in a relatively small tech company going it alone.”
BrightMLS and Ocusell said that pricing for their solutions will vary based on MLS and brokerage size. However, Ocusell’s brokerage case studies suggest an annual cost savings of mid-four figures.
Beyond the opportunity to supercharge its tech offerings, Rieveschl and Mucellin said they want the joint venture to be an example of how collaboration — not competition — is what drives industry progress.
“Our mission has been to provide interoperability to an industry that’s been, frankly, in dire need of it for decades. Brokers have a need and expectation to have centralized control of their listing process,” Rieveschl said. “And when we initially came into Bright, I was unsure as to whether we would see eye to eye on that topic. And we absolutely did.”
“And outside of their team, their wonderful team, that is what sold me on this partnership. We both feel that these two pieces — the broker and the MLS — are key to creating an ecosystem where a rising tide raises all ships. That’s our focus. That’s the mission of this JV.”