Prior to widespread internet usage, when consumers could only find out about homes for sale through yard signs or accessing an MLS listing book by working with a broker, agents viewed listings as a marketing asset. However, this view evolved as the internet made it easier for consumers to access information about homes for sale.
But the internet has evolved, enabling platforms to find ways to generate revenue from listings and listing data, and now many in the industry have begun to question who exactly owns listing data and how that data can be controlled.
“Before we put listings online, having a listing was a marketing asset for the listing broker because you could put a sign on the property with your name or run a two-line ad in the newspaper listing your name and phone number. So, it brought you leads, and you didn’t just allow some other listing broker to put their sign up in the yard because everyone knew the value of having a listing,” Saul Klein, an industry veteran and the CEO of San Diego MLS, said.
Brokers are taking back control of the listing
Listings, according to Klein, provide value to the listing broker from not only the sale of the property, but from the leads they bring in. However, once listings were made widely available online, more entities beyond the listing agent began finding ways to extract value from the listing and now some listing agents are demanding some of that control back.
“When we first started syndicating listings, nobody thought about contracts. We would just get the listings to the brokers and then give it to the portals that wanted them,” Klein said. “But fast forward to today and brokers are waking up again and realizing that those listings are worth money because they can see that they are making other people money.”
One of the most common ways other agents and entities are profiting off of a listing is through listing portals selling leads to agents. But now, as brokers and agents are looking for ways to differentiate themselves by providing different listing strategies, including the usage of private listings or a coming soon phase, they are looking to regain control of where their listing data appears and how it is used.
It is this desire to have a “trusted listing distribution partner,” that led Chris Kelly and HomeServices of America to team up with Cotality on its recently launched Broker Listing Exchange (BLX).
According to Cotality, BLX is an enterprise listing management and distribution platform that gives brokerages more direct control over how listings are created, standardized and syndicated across MLSs and portals.
The evolving landscape for data
“We were looking at this evolving landscape that’s shifting very quickly, where we have trusted listing distribution partners that are now, whether they’re deciding to do it or they’re being forced to do it, they’re making decisions and changes without us having a lot of say or involvement in the process,” Kelly, the CEO of HomeServices of America, said in an interview with HousingWire.
While Kelly said he and his team are unsure of exactly where things are going, he noted that HomeServices of America feel that it is going to “become increasingly important that we, as a brokerage on behalf of our agents and clients, have that initial degree of control over our listing content and on where it goes.”
“With everything that’s shifting and changing so quickly and the MLS making these decisions on how they’re pivoting and changing, we felt it was important that we take a step to make sure that however that kind of landscapes evolves over the next 12 to 36 months, we’re in a position to make sure that we’re not disrupting how our listing content is getting out to the public,” Kelly said.
MLS mission creep
With the changes that some MLSs are making, some brokerage leaders are wondering if at least some MLSs are experiencing a bit of mission creep.
“Watching my dad help create the MLS in Pittsburgh in the 1960s and 70s, they were looking to create a B2B portal where you can bring your buyers, and you can see what I have for sale. A big part of it was transparency of inventory and data, but also cooperation,” Hoby Hanna, the CEO of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, said to HousingWire.
Like Klein, Hanna believes that things became messier once listings moved online and different entities realized there were ways to make money off of listing data that didn’t exist in an analog world. This, in Hanna’s mind, as well as the evolution of technology and the value of data, contributed to MLSs, in some ways, stepping outside of their lane as a business-to-business platform.
“I think there may have been some MLS executives who thought they could have more control and creep into other areas, but most of them, I think the mission creep came because they thought they were offering products and services to their members and brokers, but there were a handful of those executives who were like ‘I’m going to control the future of the industry through my MLS.’ But I don’t think the creep was completely intentional, but maybe they did go a bridge too far and now it is coming back to catch them,” Hanna said.
The potential for change
In the future, Kelly believes the MLS will still be the hub of brokerage cooperation, but he does see the potential for this to change.
“There is no reason why the MLS shouldn’t be the home of cooperation moving forward,” Kelly said. “But I think it is really going to come to each MLS and its leadership. Those that embrace their role as infrastructure for the industry and not try to be a standalone business that is only out to protect itself, I think, have a very bright future and should absolutely continue to be the backbone of where listings are aggregated, viewed and distributed out to cooperating brokers.”
Looking ahead, Craig Cheatham, the president and CEO of The Realty Alliance, said brokers increasingly want MLSs “to evolve from rule-centric organizations into modern infrastructure and data partners focused on data quality, AI readiness, operational efficiency and measurable business value.”
“The MLS space has changed dramatically over the past year as organizations grapple with the aftermath of the commission lawsuits, the removal of compensation from the MLS environment, growing legal uncertainty, and increasing pressure to redefine their value proposition,” Cheatham wrote in an email.
“Brokers are seeing MLSs become more defensive and more cautious, while at the same time many MLSs are beginning to recognize they must evolve from primarily rulemaking bodies into modern data and technology partners. That shift is opening the door to conversations brokers have wanted for years around governance reform, financial transparency, data quality, AI usage rights and whether firms that contribute the most inventory and market data should have a greater voice in how MLSs operate.”
Advocating for a national MLS
Greg Hague, the founder of 72Sold and the director of home sale strategy at Compass International Holdings, shares a similar view. While Hague is an advocate for a national MLS, regardless of what happens with MLS consolidation in the future, he believes there will continue to be a place for MLSs that are willing to listen and adapt to broker needs and desires.
“The MLS has, in many ways, lost its way, but I don’t think it was ill-intended,” Hague said. “I think that the MLS can play an enormously important role in the industry. I just think they need to rethink some of the rules to become as good a tool for us as they can be. I would hate to see a real estate world without the MLS, they play an incredibly foundational role in our ability to market homes and to share them with each other. I just would like them to not overreach as much as they do by telling us how we have to market homes.”
It is what Hague sees as overreach, that Cheatham believes could be the crux of the industry’s next big fight.
“Brokers are quietly exploring whether future cooperation could occur through broker-controlled data networks if MLSs fail to adapt quickly enough. Underneath all of this is a larger strategic shift: the industry is moving away from simply asking who controls the listings and toward asking who controls the platforms, intelligence and consumer experiences built on top of those listings,” Cheatham wrote. “And that may ultimately become the defining real estate industry battle of the next decade.”
