Gary Keller’s blunt message for MLS leaders 

ORLANDO — Gary Keller is no fan of the "wholesale use" of private listings, and he's using his stature as a longtime brokerage leader to push back on what he views as an existential issue for the real estate industry.

Keller, the co-founder and executive chairman of Keller Williams Realty, followed up on his recent opinion piece on private listings by taking his case to industry executives at the annual T3 Leadership Summit on April 22.

MLSs need to step up: Keller said the rising use of private listings is hurting sellers by undermining competition — and threatening the Multiple Listing Service by circumventing it. He called on local MLSs to reach out to their subscriber base as they work to ensure both members and consumers are being well-served.

He believes that right now, local MLSs are compromised by having only a handful of people making decisions. MLS leaders, he advised, "need to go talk to their constituents, and they should make their decision based on what they believe is best for the consumer."

Fix it or lose it: Keller noted that while MLSs have rules in place, many are unsure how — or whether — to enforce them. 

"So let me put this bluntly: If the MLSs don't clean up their business, they're not going to have one," he said.

The risk to the MLS marketplace is also why Keller is choosing to speak out now: He's worried that the shift toward more private or exclusive listings could relegate MLSs to being the market of "last resort," diminishing a system that he believes has been the envy of the world. 

Chart a path — or give up control: If the industry remains divided over private listings, Keller predicts states will end up being the decision makers. Several states are already working on legislation prohibiting some types of pre-marketing and private listing practices.

"Just keep doing what you are doing, and it'll be taken out of your hands," Keller told the roughly 400 executives in attendance.

But he isn't against private listings in all cases. "We don't believe private listing is wrong," Keller later clarified in an emailed statement to Real Estate News. "The wholesale use of them as the entry point into the market throws U.S. back to the 50's and 60's and makes mls the last stop to try to sell a property. That destroys mls and the marketplace and replaces it with listings treated as assets to control for business gain."

Private listings are "fine under fair win-win rules that don't completely destroy the market," he added. "The rules should be fair and evenly enforced."

The 10,000-foot view: Keller Williams has gone through significant changes in the past year with the addition of Stone Point Capital as a strategic partner and Chris Czarnecki as CEO — but that's given Keller more time to think about the bigger industry picture. 

While concerned about private listings, Keller remains optimistic about where real estate and the housing market are headed. 

"I think it looks fantastic," Keller said when asked about the direction of the market over the next five to 10 years. "I think that it's real estate agents helping buyers and sellers, definitely using artificial intelligence very deeply in that process."

As AI improves efficiency, Keller thinks it will also accelerate the formation of teams. Today's real estate teams are looking more like the boutique brokerages of past years, he noted — and if that continues, "then the brokerage industry is going to have to start acting more and more like a team, and that is being more productivity focused."

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a clarification from Gary Keller about his stance on private listings.