You’ll Never Walk Alone with the Newest Service from Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED)

Feb. 23, 2012 - PRLog -- Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED) has announced that Walk Score® is live and fully integrated with its connectMLS™ system.  Walk Score® was successfully launched to nearly 40,000 MRED customers, who now have access to a tool experiencing mass adoption around the world.

Walk Score® is the only international measure of walkability.  More than 10,000 websites use Walk Score® and it generates over four million scores each day.  Walkability is very important to listing agents in promoting the location of properties for sale and to buyers’ agents in finding the appropriate properties for their clients.  A Walk Score® now appears on every active listing in MRED’s MLS system.

Walk Score® can also calculate commute times to work, school, or the train station, i.e. anywhere.  Four metrics are also generated: drive times and estimated annual fuel cost; public transit options and time frames; walk and bike time; and all of these with routes displayed on a map.  With Walk Score® you get a map of the nearest amenities for every property, including schools, restaurants, grocery stores and more.  Use the search function to find nearby places like “gyms” or “forest preserves”.

With all of this new functionality, it is no surprise that Walk Score® is a big hit with MRED’s brokers and agents.

“Walk Score® is a great tool for selling properties,” said Chaz Walters of Coldwell Banker Residential in Chicago.  “The more it is used, the more helpful it will become to real estate professionals and the consumer.  It is great for Realtors® to have impressive third party sources that can convey objective information to buyers and sellers.”

“I love this new addition to our listings,” said Corinne Guest of Royal Advocate Realty in Barrington.  “It’s not surprising that Internet savvy buyers want as much information about a property as they can get, including how easy it will be to walk to the local stores, train station or nightlife.  Now it’s available at the click of a button, in an easy to understand number format.”

“Thanks for the new Walk Score®,” said Kurt Bloom of Results Realty in Antioch.  “It’s easy to understand, fun to use and practical for our clients.  Plus, it makes us look good.”

"I have been including Walk Score® in the marketing of my listings and directing my clients to the site for a while now,” said Andrea Geller of Coldwell Banker Residential in Chicago.  “Walk Score® is the best site for neighborhood information, especially in an urban area. The partnership between Walk Score® and MRED removes the necessity to go outside the listing to obtain the neighborhood information the consumer is expecting.  This addition to MRED is another example of how our regional MLS is striving to provide the real estate professional and our customers one stop/click service."

"Walk Score® is a great enhancement to our MLS,” said Jeffrey Kershner of Silver Crown Real Estate in Barrington.  “It immediately gives clients the nearest amenities such as shopping, dining and other services with one click; but the best part is that clients can use the commute feature to budget the cost of their commutes allowing them to compare between different neighborhoods.  It may be best that a client pays a little more for a house closer to work with lower commute costs and now we can show them this from an independent source.  This will be one of the most valuable tools in the MLS."

“Part of our mission at MRED is to effectively and conveniently provide products and services to enhance our real estate professionals’ ability to serve the consumer,” said Russ Bergeron, CEO of MRED.  “Walk Score® has fast become the standard for measuring walkability, and the opportunity to provide the Walk Score® and its other benefits within our MLS system was too good to pass up.  We couldn’t be more pleased at the reception Walk Score® has received from our brokers, agents and appraisers.”

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Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) is the real estate data aggregator and distributor providing the Chicagoland multiple listing service (MLS) to nearly 8,000 real estate offices and 40,000 real estate professionals, including brokers, agents and appraisers