What is the story with RealFast?

So Tuesday afternoon I received the same email you did from RealFast CEO John Mayes. I know it has left many people confused about is happening with the company, and where we stand as RealFast clients. I know I sent a brief email to managers back in November when the news first broke explaining what I knew (which wasn't a whole lot at that point) but now I want to try to give a bit more insight.

First, some background. In PA the job of managing and approving the standard forms we use falls to the Pennsylvania Association of REALTORS (PAR) and their Standard Forms Committee. Careful scrutiny is paid to every nuance of the contracts to make sure the practitioners who use them are legally protected. That is why the legal hotline reports to PAR - as it is important that the legal rights of REALTORS in PA are protected.

Once the forms are approved, there is only one entity that is responsible for distributing them to REALTORS. That group is known as BSRE (Business Services for Real Estate). BSRE is the company who sells the printed forms some of us continue to use in our offices, and also contracts with the firms who are permitted to sell electronic contract software to us.

Currently there are four vendors authorized by BSRE - RealFast is one of them. At the Board of Directors meeting for BSRE the decision was made to drop RealFast, specifically because they continue to lose market share in Pennsylvania and because their technology does not allow for files to be moved between systems. Having considered leaving RealFast last September, I know how hard it is to move files in their current setup (it is impossible, BTW).

So BSRE decided not to renew RealFast, but realized that it could not hurt its own members by forcing RealFast out before they had earned the money already spent by firms like ours. So they said that RealFast can not sign up new contracts after March, 2011 and that all contracts must be completed by March, 2012.

For the record, Coldwell Banker Hearthside's contract with RealFast expires in September, 2011...well before the BSRE deadline hits.

What that means is that you will see no changes in your RealFast service. They will continue to support our product until our contract expires, with no trouble from BSRE. Obviously we will not be renewing with them when September comes.

Because we know we have to switch vendors we are already in the process of reviewing the offerings from the other three vendors. Our plan is to have a vendor selected by May and to have training in place for all of you during May and June.

Once the system is in place and we have done the training we will push very hard to have everyone using our new system by mid-June. That way any drafts you have in place will be on the new system well before September comes (remember, I said there is no data mobility in RealFast).

I will have much more information as we go, but I wanted to give you some insight. Of course if you have questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let me know.