Some real estate agents in the New River Valley are petitioning to dump new property listings software selected this past spring by their professional association.

Critics say the software -- which manages a nonpublic database of properties for sale -- was supposed to be superior to a previous system and is, in fact, not.

In April, the Christiansburg-based New River Valley Association of Realtors turned over management of its multiple listing service to Rapattoni Corp. of Simi Valley, Calif., ending its use of a service provided by FBS Data Systems of Fargo, N.D.

Real estate agents consider the MLS a vital business tool. Members pay the association a monthly fee to log onto the MLS by computer, inspect property listings and add listings of their own so they are seen by other agents. No one interviewed for this story would say what the fee is.

Elaine Head, who directs the association, did not respond to multiple phone messages and an e-mail seeking her comment.

Charles Burnette, who is president of the association board, said Friday that six to 12 members have voiced concerns about the Rapattoni system. The association has about 600 members, he said.

"As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with Rapattoni," Burnette said.

Margaret Galecki, general manager of Coldwell Banker Townside in Blacksburg, said the Rapattoni system functions sufficiently to enable real estate agents to do their job of bringing buyers and sellers together.

But the opposition is significant, she said.

The Rapattoni system lacks features real estate agents had come to value, she said. Some issues are small; agents no longer receive an alert when a listing is about to expire. Other issues are more significant. For instance, there are fewer options to customize real estate reports for clients, she said.

A petition that asks the association board to investigate the time and cost of switching from Rapattoni to a different system has 267 signatures, according to Galecki, who estimated the association has 540 members.

"We sense this was a mistake. It was a mistake and we'd like another system that is more useful for the agents," Galecki said. "It's no longer an issue of, 'Can we fix Rapattoni?' It's an issue of, 'How soon can we change?' "

Nick Rapattoni, president of Rapattoni Corp., declined through company spokeswoman Sabrina Frailich to comment. Rapattoni's Web site said the company's MLS technology powers the multiple listing services of 100 real estate groups around the country.

Roanoke's association uses the MLS software the New River group gave up.

Christiansburg real estate agent Jeremy Hart said he is unhappy with Rapattoni for many reasons.

In a Web posting, he compared the former system from FBS Data, called flexmls, to an expensive Italian sports car and the Rapattoni system to an unpopular eastern European subcompact.

"Our old product was the Ferrari -- robust yet restrained on our quiet residential streets -- while our new product is the Yugo -- overwhelmed and outdated from the get go," Hart wrote on his blog, NRVLiving.com.

In an interview, he said the system poses compatibility issues for him as a Mac computer user, lacks previously available features to analyze data and has an unreliable search engine.

"I can't say there's a quantifiable loss of business. The time it takes me to do certain tasks has gone up exponentially," he said.

David Rifkin, vice president of sales with FBS Data, the former software provider, was asked about the controversy.

"We'd like to get them back. But that's up to their board of directors," Rifkin said. "It would be relatively easy to flip it back on."