NAR’s home lockbox company, SentriLock, has announced the development of a new platform that will compete with Zillow and Homesnap when it comes to offering a place to organize home showing appointments. Called SentriKey Showing Service, the platform is set to give other similar services like ShowingTime a run for its money.
SentriLock CEO, Scott Fisher explained that the new platform uses the Google Cloud and connects access between an agent’s appointment page and SentriLock lockboxes to offer the whole package when it comes to showing off a property easily and efficiently.
What’s interesting about this new product is that it was developed to compete directly with Zillow’s ShowingTime service, which was purchased by Zillow for $500 million in February. Zillow is an NAR-member real estate brokerage and has relied on NAR’s MLS feeds, further muddying the waters between the two entities.
NAR CEO Bob Goldberg said in a recent statement:
“Competition anywhere benefits consumers everywhere. And the introduction of SentriLock’s showing service solution offers a significant opportunity for realtors and our nation’s entire real estate industry.”
There’s a third party in the mix, as well. Around the same time that ShowingTime was purchased by Zillow, Homesnap, under the leadership of CoStar, announced its own home showing product to dethrone ShowingTime’s claim on the showcase market in the U.S. And these big names aren’t alone in their endeavor, with Delta Media Group also developing a competitor to the market-leading service.
SentriLock’s new platform will be available on all MLS services by the summer months and will have little input by NAR, moving forward.
