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A cyberattack on a national property listing host is leaving real estate agents across the country, including the Central Valley, scrambling for solutions.

Last week, Bay Area Real Estate Information Service, a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for brokerages in Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano and Mendocino counties, informed its users of an attack on Westlake Village-based Rapattoni Corp. 

Rapattoni’s MLS software is an internet-based listing system used by real estate agents and associations throughout the country.

The ransomware cyberattack has brought Rapattoni’s MLS down, with new property listings and open houses unsearchable, and other certain data unavailable.

The cyberattack has disrupted the work of real estate agents and associations in the Central Valley, but they are communicating and working together to keep the market running.

Brian Domingos is a real estate broker and founder of Premier Valley Realty in Fresno. He also serves as the 2023 president for the Fresno Association of Realtors. He said losing the MLS makes it challenging to get information and bring visibility to homes on the market. 

Domingos said firms are sending listings directly from their offices to the Fresno Association of Realtors, with staff compiling the information, putting it on a sheet and sending it out every hour so members can see what’s coming to market. 

For those wishing to buy a home, searching for one online will be difficult in real time. But Domingos is hopeful that there will be a quick solution for consumers to get that information.

There is no timeline as to when the Rapattoni service will be back online, but if it continues for several months, there will be a need for alternative MLS providers, Domingos said. 

Michael Allen, broker and owner with Century 21 Jordan-Link & Company in Visalia and president of the Tulare County Association of Realtors, said that agents and association members were left in confusion after the cyberattack. 

Allen said the Tulare County MLS doesn’t use Rapattoni’s services, but they are used for back office systems such as billing and agent information. The impact is minimal.

But the are concerns in the industry about what private information could have been compromised.

Jordan-Link’s other offices in Fresno, Bakersfield and Kings County all use the Rapattoni MLS service.

In those markets, no new property listings are able to be input, nor any changes made. Whatever information stored as of the Aug. 9 attack is frozen, Allen said. 

Most MLS systems syndicate to third-party websites like Zillow.com and Realtor.com, but after the attack, those listings are not syndicating because they’re not going into the MLS database. 

“Any brand new listing that an agent signs with a client can’t be marketed through MLS, which is one of the key benefits of listing with a Realtor,” Allen said. 

A lot of the digital marketing for both agents and clients is currently halted. 

There are some workarounds, however, depending on whether a real estate company is with a franchise or not.

Allen said his franchise of Century 21 has a system that syndicates directly to third-party Realtors, which is helping their agents and markets get their listings out and search for others. 

Showing properties and getting data to make offers has proven difficult, he said. 

Allen’s team is also having to operate on a more manual basis with a lot more direct information to find out what is going on with listings. 

Allen said Rapattoni is working to get its system back up, but there is no solution yet. There are reports it could be a ransom attack, he added.

With hundreds of real estate associations and thousands of agents utilizing the service, there is not going to be a quick fix, Allen said. He doesn’t expect it to be up and running in the near future. 

He said he has never seen a cyberattack on the real estate industry of this nature before.

The Tulare County Association of Realtors are working with Fresno and Bakersfield real estate associations and with Rapattoni to come up with ways to get data back online and syndicated. 

Realty Concepts Realtor Don Scordino looked at the bright side of the situation.

“I’ve seen in the last week more phone calls and interaction between agents, sharing information, helping one another out — it’s kind of refreshing,” Scordino said. 

Part of this collaboration includes updating listings and checking on the status of properties. 

Though access to information is limited, Scordino said the homes are still there, and there are still signs in front of the houses with phone numbers. 

Scordino said the Fresno MLS hasn’t been down for more than 30 minutes in the last 15 years. He said the current MLS shutdown is going longer than he thought it would, but real estate agents are getting creative. 

“Real estate professionals had to step up and think outside the box and other things to get the information we need,” Scordino said. “We can still do transactions, it’s just more cumbersome without the technology.”