Thoughts on a more service-oriented MLS

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

                                                                                                            –Princess Leia, circa 1977

That quote has always seemed to capture my opinion on data control and growth for the MLS and the real estate industry.  The more the industry tries to control data or maintain its historical stance on change, the more the consumer has slipped away from the industry and, often, the REALTOR.  This creates a deep irony: the amount of effort and capital needed for the uphill battle to control the inevitable which instead could be put into forward growth and an expansion of services which would benefit all parties involved and help to close the growing gap between the REALTOR and the consumer.

We need to face facts.  With each passing day, the consumer is accessing more and more data.  This data is being aggregated from various disjointed efforts, and it is often less reliable than that which a REALTOR can provide.  Yet having access to this increased level of information gives the consumer a feeling of self-empowerment, and so it blurs the value that a REALTOR can bring to the process.   The increase in data started off simply, with consumers just being able to search listings.  But as more and more sources of data spring up, the consumer is now able to determine estimates of property value (Zillow) and even place an offer directly online (Redfin). 

This trend is the reality; the industry simply can not fight it.  Instead, we need to embrace it and even enhance the available data, which will give us the opportunity to help define it.  And there is no better place to begin to embrace the trend than with the source of listing information, the MLS.  To continue to remain relevant, the MLS needs to reinvent itself as a technology service provider for its members. 

Historically, the MLS has been the facilitator of rules and regulation for cooperation and compensation.  But with the new technology and the increased amount of data available, they need to start thinking about how they can leverage their role as the centralized place for listing data.  The MLS has the potential to become a virtual toolbox of integrated services, such as a consumer-facing listing search/evaluation portal which can couple with customer contact management and showing scheduling.  In addition, the MLS can become a technology partner with brokers and agents and help with listing syndication.  Not only would this alleviate the problem of inaccurate data being shotgunned to each new aggregation site, it would reduce the multiple points of entry and help restore the MLS’ centrality 

With the upcoming June 2009 MLS RETS Compliance increasing the MLS’s role as a technology provider, the MLS will be positioned to provide enhanced listing access to third-party vendors as well as to broker and agent IDX sites.  Similar efforts have already been made elsewhere, and they have received positive results and responses from their members. 

That’s a good start, but we could also take the data one step further, and aggregate more information that can help the REALTOR and the consumer.  We could, for example, offer public records or neighborhood trends.  The MLS could provide widgets and tools that REALTORs can extend on their own site for their clients’ use.  These could include historic pricing comparisons, area information, and property valuation models based on accurate and complete data.  All this information is already out there in the wild, but sometimes its reliability is dubious.  Therefore if we provide these tools and the most dependable data, we can help to keep the consumer at the center of the transaction, while confirming the importance of the REALTOR.

Finally, the MLS can take this to the next level, and engage in the REALTORS PROPERTY RESOURCE (formerly known as the Gateway).  This site permits REALTORS to leverage all the tools they created and all the data they’ve aggregated, and to share it across the board while also benefiting from the resources shared by other participating entities. 

The is the MLS 2.0 defined.  It gives consumers and members what they want in the best and most efficient manner possible, and it helps everyone win.


Christopher McKeever
cmckeever@realtors.org