The MLS ‘isn’t really dead after all,’ CRMLS CEO says 

ORLANDO — The MLS has long been one of the real estate industry's backbones. But recently, some major players have started to challenge its role by building partnerships that advertise off-MLS listings.

What comes next for the hundreds of MLSs across the country is still up in the air as they navigate an evolving landscape increasingly focused on pre-marketing and "seller choice." At the T3 Leadership Summit last week, Bright MLS President and CEO Brian Donnellan and California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) CEO Art Carter discussed how they're approaching the industry's next phase.

The future of the marketplace

The brokerage community will shape how the MLS transforms, Donnellan and Carter agreed. But the community contains a multitude of voices with differing opinions, which complicates the MLS's evolution.

The consumer's best interests must continue to guide decision-making, according to Carter. "There is no singular voice that you have to listen to," he said. "Obviously, you want to give brokerages what they want, what they need. But to the same extent, my board of directors has been very clear that we also have to keep an eye on what's best for the consumer."

Five years from now, "there's a really good chance there is no transparent marketplace," Donnellan said. For now, it's important to allow brokers to test out what they need in terms of marketing options, he added — and to provide them with data-driven feedback.

A recent T3 Sixty flash poll of MLS executives found most MLS leaders feel that the new models emerging during the pre-MLS marketing period represent a substantive change to the comprehensive marketplace, noted T3 Sixty EVP of Organized Real Estate Clint Skutchan, who was part of the panel.

The variety of exposure tiers that emerge over the next few years will be revealing, Skutchan added, and may place smaller firms at a disadvantage when pinned against the expansive networks of larger brokerages.

What does 'consumer-focused' look like today?

Consumers will ultimately be the ones who determine whether companies are acting in their best interests or advancing agendas in opposition to consumer-focused messaging, Donnellan said. But with differing industry agendas guiding them, consumers may not land on what's really best, he warned — and more people should be asking if enhanced exposure equates to more transparency.

Some of the basic MLS principles should be guiding the path forward, Carter argued, including the belief that "brokers are better together."

Meanwhile, consumer interest has become "weaponized" in what Skutchan believes is "a disservice to our industry as a whole."

The MLS may not be 'sexy' — but it's necessary

Though "what the MLS does is not sexy," it serves a necessary function, Carter said. The MLS should not have to apologize for having and enforcing rules, he added, though the industry appears to be heading in that direction.

"That's not a place that we should be," Carter said. "I get concerned that $2 billion has gone out the door in class-action settlements, and every lawyer you talk to has said they're just holding back and waiting for this class to get big enough to file their next lawsuit."

"It astounds me that we're having some of these conversations so quickly after the Sitzer case," he added.

The MLS is positioned for power

It bodes well for the future that the post-commissions settlements MLS did not implode after eliminating broker compensation fields, Carter said. Removing compensation details from the MLS gave agents an opportunity to demonstrate their value — something that one buyer's agent told Donnellan she welcomed. 

"As long as we're doing what we should be doing and listening to our brokers, listening to the consumer and providing a good service, I think that there is some level of optimism that the MLS isn't really dead after all," Carter joked.

MLSs have an opportunity to become the centralized hub for authoritative data that agents and brokers can trust as AI use expands, Carter and Donnellan agreed.

"AI is still hallucinating," Carter said, "to the point where the only way that you're going to stop the hallucination is having a verified source of data that people can tie it to. And the multiple listing service has to be it."

Carter is concerned that the MLS may never get listings infrastructure back once it's turned over to the portals. "That's why we need to be doubly focused on it right now," he said. But Skutchan argued that a "protectionist" attitude would not necessarily be enough — and the MLSs should take a more offensive approach by proactively promoting what they provide.

"The MLS is sitting on the largest set of data that can tell the story" to consumers, brokers and agents, Donnellan said. "You got to get out there with your story and your message."

Editor's note: Real Estate News is an editorially independent division of T3 Sixty.