Up To Date Agent

[Moderator]

On December 29, 2010, John Fridlington of the Florida Realtors sent an
email describing the outcome of the negotiations with Instanet
Solutions, the owners of Transaction Desk. Then earlier today,
December 30, 2010, an email by Instanet Solutions CEO, Martin
Scrocchi, details their side of the same outcome. After reading both
sides, who is to blame for costing Florida Real Estate Agents ten of
thousands of dollars to switch to a new form management system?

I guess you have to look at who has the most to gain and read between
the lines. First, in Fridlington’s email he mentions a subsidiary. Who
is this subsidiary? That would be Real Estate Industry Solutions
(REIS). REIS is a FOR-PROFIT subsidiary of Florida Realtors and the
owners of Form Simplicity, a competing product to Transaction Desk.
Why doesn’t Fridlington expose this piece of information directly in
his email? Ask him! What does this say about the ethos of the
organization? Questionable.

This speaks volumes when you realize that membership dues were used to
fund the development of Form Simplicity by REIS. A little tid bit of
information about Forms Simplicity. Yes, it is free to use, but Agents
only have a very limited amount of storage to save their forms. If
Agents need more storage to keep all their transactions and all the
forms they gather, guess what? Forms Simplicity requires a monthly
subscription fee to add a limited amount of storage!!! Really? REALLY!
No one bothered to tell the membership that little bit of news. How
many form pages does an Agent create in a transaction? Over a hundred
pages per sold home in the State of Florida and sometimes many more.
Condo docs can be enormous. Remember, Forms Simplicity was developed
with membership dues.

Brokers are also hit with additional costs as well. Any form a Broker
wants to incorporate into Forms Simplicity for their Agents will cost
$50 per page or $200 per 10 pages. Have you seen all the custom forms,
including adding additional terms to the standard FR/BR and FAR forms?
That means thousands of pages per Broker would need to be incorporated
into Forms Simplicity. $$$$$

Instanet Solutions loss of revenue from its Florida real estate
members is substancial. Why would they propagate a negotiation stance
for a licensing agreement to host forms that potential effects their
bottom line?

There are two sides of any story. There always is. What is reality, is
REIS has a competing product to Transaction Desk, the largest supplier
of form management software in the State of Florida. What’s obvious is
FR/REIS shifting costs of having form management product from their GL
to the Brokers and Agents. Remember, Form Simplicity was developed
with membership dues. Have your dues decreased as a result of this
product?

Read it for yourself and make up your mind. Use the contact
information in either email below to voice your opinions.

Dear FAR members, Directors, Associations and MLSs:

Yesterday, John Fridlington of Florida Realtors sent an email to
“2010 and 2011 Florida Realtors Board of Directors and Association
Executives” regarding “a current update on the Florida Realtors’
subsidiary’s attempt to license the Florida Realtors Forms library to
the company that provides Transaction Desk.” A copy of the text of the
email is set forth below. Regrettably, Mr. Fridlington’s email
contains information that we believe is inaccurate and potentially
misleading. In sum, Instanet Solutions has requested that REIS offer ,
Instanet Solutions the same license agreement used in the past, but
REIS has insisted on a license agreement that we believe is unfair and
inappropriate under the circumstances.

Mr. Fridlington’s email suggests that “[t]he subsidiary made the
decision to put legal concerns aside, focusing on the business needs
of the members of Florida Realtors, and offered the company that
provides Transaction Desk a licensing agreement to continue to provide
forms under substantially the same terms as other forms software
vendors in the state of Florida.” In actuality, the opposite happened
and REIS has insisted on a license that we believe is calculated to
give REIS an unfair advantage in the pending litigation. We requested
confirmation that the license agreement proposed to us was consistent
with the form licenses provided to others, and despite our request, we
did not receive a response to our inquiry. We have also been asked to
pay what we believe to be two licensing fees for TransactionDesk
(which we would reluctantly agree to do in order to continue serving
our customers, if REIS would provide what we consider to be reasonable
licensing terms.) REIS has insisted that the license include language
calculated to undermine our claims and defenses in the lawsuit
initiated by REIS on July 14th 2010 against Instanet Solutions. As set
forth in our defenses and counterclaims in REIS’s Lawsuit, we believe
REIS’s claims in the lawsuit are frivolous, and we suspect that REIS
brought suit against us in an ill-conceived effort to get leverage in
our negotiation process.

Mr. Fridlington’s email suggests that recipients should feel free
“to communicate with your members or collegues (sic) as often as
necessary that effective January 1, 2011 Transaction Desk will no
longer be available to access the Florida Realtors Forms library,” and
to present specific questions to “Margy Grant at
mar...@floridarealtors.org or Joe Ballarino at
joebal...@realestateindustrysolutions.com.” We offer that you
likewise contact us with questions at mar...@instanetsolutions.com. We
will respond to any questions with full — and accurate — information.

We felt it important to respond to Mr. Fridlington’s email and
clarify that if REIS had offered us the same licensing arrangement the
parties had used for the past eight years, we would gladly renew the
license and continue providing our services and we have so advised
REIS. We remain hopeful that REIS will provide us a licensing
agreement on reasonable terms, so that we can continue to provide you
outstanding service during 2011.

Martin Scrocchi
President/CEO
Instanet Solutions (CDM Inc. US)

The following is the email sent yesterday by FR.

Dear 2010 and 2011 Florida Realtors Board of Directors and
Association Executives,

Please allow this to serve as a current update on the Florida
Realtors’ subsidiary’s attempt to license the Florida Realtors Forms
library to the company that provides Transaction Desk. The subsidiary
made the decision to put legal concerns aside, focusing on the
business needs of the members of Florida Realtors, and offered the
company that provides Transaction Desk a licensing agreement to
continue to provide forms under substantially the same terms as other
forms software vendors in the state of Florida. The company that
provides Transaction Desk has rejected this agreement stating they
will not acknowledge that Florida Realtors owns the copyright of the
forms library. Florida Realtors believes the subsidiary did everything
reasonably possible to allow Transaction Desk to remain available to
those desiring it through 2011.

Please feel free to communicate with your members or collegues as
often as necessary that effective January 1, 2011 Transaction Desk
will no longer be available to access the Florida Realtors Forms
library. If you have any specific questions please feel free to
contact Margy Grant at mar...@floridarealtors.org or Joe Ballarino at
joebal...@realestateindustrysolutions.com .

Obviously we will update you immediately with any developments,
but we want to ensure you have the most up to date information.

May 2011 be a good year for each of you – filled with good health
and happiness.

John

John Fridlington, RCE, CAE

CEO| FloridaRealtors®
7025 Augusta National Drive, Orlando, FL 32822
talk: 407.438.1400 fax: 407.587.1487