In the early mid 1990s, before Google and before standardized data feeds existed, I was building custom websites and marketing systems at a corporate level for local companies in Florida. One project began while I was working out of an office on Manatee Avenue in Bradenton, with the REMAX corporate office directly across the street, which is still there today. An initial request for a simple website exposed a larger opportunity. At the time, MLS data was not syndicated and could only be accessed manually. I created a system that would make property data usable online, something that did not yet exist in any standardized form.
Working directly with corporate and MLS technical staff, I defined a CSV based export and built polling scripts that refreshed listings automatically. That system was deployed across regional REMAX offices at the time, providing agent profiles, property listings, and basic messaging features that were uncommon for the era. This work became a foundational project that contributed to the early growth of DeveloWare LLC and shaped my approach to building data driven systems long before modern search, SEO, or AI frameworks existed.
At the time this system was built, MLS data was not being automatically pulled into public websites. Open source development was still uncommon outside niche communities, and modular extension patterns had not yet been formally named. In retrospect, the architecture reflects early data ingestion, open design principles, and a plugin or modular structure years before those concepts became standard terminology. This technology represented a new market channel for REMAX that has endured for decades.
OpenReality technical notes
Built in PHP with a MySQL backend. Versioned release OpenReality 1.1.4. Designed as a listing manager with browse and search, agent profile support, image handling with automatic thumbnails, and an admin interface intended to keep listings updated without editing HTML. The feature set included flexible search and templates, configurable forms, and a database abstraction layer via ADODB for compatibility across multiple SQL backends.
Archival captures
The screenshots included here are archival captures from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Some visual or functional elements may appear partially broken due to archival limitations rather than the original implementation.
User experience capture:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050207164443/http://realtors.develoware.com/
Functional feature capture:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050223033216/http://www.develoware.com/openrealty/
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