WATERLOO, Ontario, & FARGO, N.D.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 23, 2024--
Planitar Inc., makers of iGUIDE, a proprietary camera and software platform for capturing and delivering 3D virtual tours and property data, and FBS, the leading innovator of Multiple Listing Service (MLS) technology and creator of the Flexmls Platform, today announced a strategic partnership and platform integration. The Flexmls Platform empowers real estate professionals from 150+ MLSs with comprehensive access to property listings, market data, and business management tools, providing flexibility and autonomy in managing their operations. This integration will connect iGUIDE’s technology to the Flexmls Platform enabling Flexmls users to seamlessly upload iGUIDE property data, including room dimensions (length and width) and labels, directly into the Flexmls platform with a single click.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240723434574/en/
Previously, users manually transferred this data, making for a significantly more time consuming and error prone process. In addition to room dimensions and labels, agents will soon be able to upload rich property data including branded and unbranded iGUIDE virtual tours, precise floor plans, photos, and videos, enhancing their productivity and simplifying the listing entry workflow.
iGUIDE is renowned for its precise schematic floor plans, meeting rigorous standards such as ANSI Z765-2021 and RECA RMS with an uncertainty of 1% or less in property square footage, well within the industry's 2% maximum allowable error. At the heart of iGUIDE's accuracy lies the quick-capture PLANIX Camera System, which employs a time-of-flight 2D lidar system to capture thousands of measurements with each scan.
Accurate property dimensions, floor plans, and 3D virtual tours benefit not only the listing agent and seller but also potential buyers, enabling them to understand property layout and make informed decisions remotely. This streamlines the buying process and enhances overall market transparency.
“FBS is the first MLS software vendor to implement the RESO Common Format (RCF) standard for auto-populating property data into the listing form. Planitar has collaborated with RESO for several years and contributed to the development of this standard, which automates the entry of various data types already available in machine-readable format. iGUIDE data is RESO-certified as RCF standard compliant and ready for integration with any MLS software that supports it,” explains Alexander Likholyot, CEO and co-founder of Planitar Inc. “This listing form autofill not only saves agents time and effort, but also greatly improves the quality of MLS data by eliminating manual transcription errors for property measurements. In addition to text and measurement data, the RCF standard supports auto-populating listing media, eliminating the need for agents to manually download and upload their images or video. This process occurs seamlessly behind the scenes, enabling agents to simply review their listing.”
FBS has a long and proven track record of purposeful technology innovation and partnerships, including this partnership with iGUIDE, that simplify the user experience, ensuring the MLS remains the premier source of data and enriches the consumer experience.
Michael Wurzer, FBS President and CEO: “We’re continually looking to enhance the MLS customer experience for the 330,000+ real estate professionals across the US that we represent at FBS, and this partnership does that. iGUIDE’s expertise in floor plan analysis, measurement, and immersive 3D virtual tours enriches Flexmls, setting new standards for the listing process and property data sharing. This integration offers the licensing framework necessary for incorporating rich content into our customers' MLS compilations, empowering them to uphold their status as the leading source of real estate data and media in their respective markets. Finally, it supports our mission to aggregate high-quality data and media, benefiting real estate practitioners and consumers.”
Featuring customizable branding, integration of neighborhood information, and built-in lead generation connecting potential buyers directly with listing agents, iGUIDE continues to provide agents with a comprehensive marketing tool.
For more information about iGUIDE, visit: goiguide.com.
About Planitar:
Founded in 2013 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, Planitar Inc. is the maker of iGUIDE, a proprietary camera and software platform for capturing and delivering immersive 3D virtual tours and extensive property data. iGUIDE is the most efficient system to map interior spaces and features accurate floor plans, measurements and reliable property square footage. By integrating floor plans and visual data, iGUIDE provides an intuitive and practical way to navigate and explore built environments digitally. For more, visit goiguide.com.
About FBS:
Nationally recognized and based in Fargo, North Dakota, FBS is the leading innovator and provider of MLS technology, currently serving 330,000+ real estate professionals on its premier Flexmls ® Platform. Flexmls is one of many apps and software products built on the standards-driven Spark ® API technology platform, the industry's first and most utilized API. 100% employee-owned and with 45 years leading of industry leadership, FBS repeatedly achieves unmatched industry rankings for customer and user satisfaction, platform performance, and net promoter score (NPS). Learn more about FBS and the premier Flexmls Platform at www.WeAreFBS.com.
Planitar Inc., makers of iGUIDE, a proprietary camera and software platform for capturing and delivering 3D virtual tours and property data, and FBS, the leading innovator of Multiple Listing Service (MLS) technology and creator of the Flexmls Platform, today announced a strategic partnership and platform integration. (Photo: Business Wire)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV celebrates his first Mass on Friday after his historic election as the first North American pope, meeting with the cardinals who chose him to lead the Catholic Church and follow in Pope Francis’ social justice-minded footsteps.
Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, surprised the world Thursday when he emerged on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica as the 267th pontiff, overcoming the traditional prohibition against a pope from the United States.
The 69-year-old wore the traditional red cape — which Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013 — and trappings of the papacy, suggesting a return to some degree of rule-following after Francis’ unorthodox pontificate.
But in naming himself Leo and referring to some of Francis' more social justice-minded priorities, the new pope could also have wanted to signal a strong line of continuity: Brother Leo was the 13th century friar who was a great companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late pope’s namesake.
“Together, we must try to find out how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, that’s always open to receive — like on this piazza with open arms — to be able to receive everybody that needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,” Leo said in near-perfect Italian in his first comments to the world.
Francis, the first Latin American pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent. He sent Prevost, who had spent years as a missionary in Peru, to take over a complicated diocese there in 2014, then brought him to the Vatican in 2023 to head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations around the world and is one of the most important jobs in church governance.
Earlier this year, Francis elevated Prevost into the senior ranks of cardinals, giving him prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.
There had long been a taboo on a U.S. pope, given America’s superpower status in the secular world. But Prevost prevailed, perhaps because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and had lived for two decades in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop.
As if to drive that home, Leo spoke in Italian and Spanish from the loggia, but not English.
Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had kept a low public profile but was well-known to the men who count. Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.
In a 2023 interview with Vatican News, the then-cardinal said the women had enriched the process and reaffirmed the need for the laity to have a greater role in the church.
“Even the bishops of Peru called him the saint, the Saint of the North, and he had time for everyone,” said the Rev. Alexander Lam, an Augustinian friar from Peru who knows the new pope.
The crowd in St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers Thursday when white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel shortly after 6 p.m. on the second day of the conclave. Waving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people were surprised an hour later when the senior cardinal deacon announced the winner was Prevost.
U.S. President Donald Trump said it was “such an honor for our country” for the new pope to be American.
“What greater honor can there be?” he said. The president added that “we’re a little bit surprised and we’re happy.”
That said, Prevost has shared criticism of the Trump administration 's migration policies: In past social media posts, Prevost shared articles criticizing Vice President JD Vance's justification of the administration's mass deportation plans.
The last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church’s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics, and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. His most famous encyclical, Rerum Novarum of 1891, addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the new pope’s choice of name.
That Leo also has close ties to the Augustinian order: He rebuilt an ancient Augustinian church and convent near his hometown of Carpineto, outside Rome, which is still in use by the order today.
Vatican watchers said Prevost’s decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant given the previous Leo’s legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with some of Francis’ chief concerns. Specifically, Leo cited one of Francis’ key priorities of making the Catholic Church more attentive to lay people and inclusive.
“He is continuing a lot of Francis’ ministry,’’ said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University in the Bronx. But she also said his election could send a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with much of the right-wing opposition to Francis coming from there.
“I think it is going to be exciting to see a different kind of American Catholicism in Rome,’’ Imperatori-Lee said.
Leo, for his part, in a 2023 interview with Vatican News said the polarization in the church was a wound that needed to be healed.
“Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement towards unity, towards communion in the church,” he said.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told reporters he never thought he would see an American pope, given the questions of how he would navigate dealing with a U.S. president, especially someone like Trump.
“And so I just never imagined that we would have an American pope, and I have great confidence that Pope Leo will do a wonderful job of navigating that,” he said.
Leo's brother, John Prevost, was so shocked that his brother had been elected pope that he missed several phone calls from him during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. He called the pope back and Leo told him he wasn't interested in being part of the interview.
John Prevost described his brother, a fan of Wordle, as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice. He said he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”
“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he added. “Kind of right down the middle.”
Leo was expected to celebrate Mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, deliver his first Sunday noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s and attend an audience with the media on Monday in the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
Beyond that, he has a possible first foreign trip at the end of May: Francis had been invited to travel to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations.
The new pope was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was formed in the 13th century as a community of “mendicant” friars — dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican News said Leo is the first Augustinian pope.
In Peru, he is known as the saintly missionary who waded through mud after torrential rains flooded the region, bringing help to needy people, and as the bishop who spearheaded the lifesaving purchase of oxygen production plants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He has no problem fixing a broken-down truck until it runs,” said Janinna Sesa, who met Prevost while she worked for the church’s Caritas charity.
Franklin Briceno in Lima Peru, Obed Lamy and Hallie Golden in New Lenox, Ill, Colleen Barry in Schiavon, Italy and Vanessa Gera and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Faithful hold a photo of Bishop Robert Prevost, who was elected Pope Leo XIV, in front of the Cathedral of Chiclayo, Peru, Thursday, May 8, 2025, where he served as bishop for several years, (AP Photo/Manuel Medina)
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square shortly after his election, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, left, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, appears with, from left, Master of Ceremonies Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Cardinal Vinko Puljić on the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican shortly after his election as the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, left, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, appears with, from left, Master of Ceremonies Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, and former Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican shortly after his election as the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
