‘No hidden agenda’ with BLX, HomeServices CEO says
Chris Kelly explains why his company became a Broker Listing Exchange launch partner — and why the move doesn’t signal a break in its relationship with MLSs.
HomeServices of America wants the real estate industry to know that it supports and respects MLSs — but also believes the way listings are managed and distributed should change.
A few weeks after announcing a partnership with Cotality on its new Broker Listing Exchange (BLX), HomeServices CEO Chris Kelly defended the move in an open letter addressed to his company's MLS partners.
"Our objective is not to move away from MLSs," Kelly said in the letter, which he shared widely on LinkedIn Monday. "It is to modernize how we interface with them in a way that better reflects the scale, complexity, and realities of today's marketplace."
No '4D chess': HomeServices has "no hidden agenda" and is not playing "4D chess" in partnering with Cotality on BLX, according to Kelly. "This is not a direct attempt to circumvent MLSs, withhold listing content or create a private listing network," he said, adding that "listing content will continue flowing into MLS systems under the same timelines and standards that exist today."
The point of the partnership, he explained, is to update the way listings are managed and distributed to better meet the needs of brokers operating in a digital world where the MLS systems developed decades ago feel outdated.
Those systems "made perfect sense" at the time they were created, he said. But the industry "has fundamentally changed," with many of the top U.S. brokerages now national in scope. At HomeServices, he noted, the company works with over 240 MLSs across the country every year and is "simply seeking to modernize" the flow of listings data.
A need for more control: In addition to the industry's push toward consolidation, Kelly pointed to another emerging trend: Many MLSs are changing their approach to listing distribution by going national, establishing third-party relationships with brokerages and more.
Control over listings data is at the heart of these changes — and many brokerages have come to the realization that they are "increasingly dependent" on other parties.
HomeServices is backing BLX in part because the future is unknown, and it "would be unreasonable to simply wait, react, and potentially place our agents and their clients in a vulnerable position based upon future decisions or changes made by others across the industry ecosystem," Kelly said.
An opportunity to 'evolve thoughtfully together': HomeServices' embrace of BLX doesn't change its intent to continue collaborating with its MLS partners, Kelly said.
"We believe there is an opportunity to evolve thoughtfully together while preserving the cooperation and transparency that have long benefited the industry."
The 'only responsible thing to do'? Though only a handful of LinkedIn users had commented on Kelly's letter as of May 26, initial reactions were mostly positive. In an apparent reference to Midwest Real Estate Data's (MRED) legal battle with Zillow in Chicago, real estate tech expert and keynote speaker Matthew Ferrara described HomeServices' embrace of BLX as "the only responsible thing to do."
"Anybody who had a BLX in Chicago last week was light-years ahead of protecting their clients and agents while the MLS was playing dangerous politics with people's livelihoods," Ferrera wrote.
Rajeev Sajja, Bright MLS's chief AI and product officer, also applauded HomeServices' "push for a modern real estate ecosystem," an initiative he said Bright MLS supports.
How we got here: BLX launched earlier this month with HomeServices and Keller Williams as its first two partners. The tool aims to give brokers more control over their data by allowing them to create and manage listings inside a brokerage-controlled system before they go live on the MLS and on portals.
The move comes as MLSs face an inflection point amid the broader industry debate over listing control and access. While HomeServices acknowledged MLS fragmentation in its earlier announcement, using BLX "is not about bypassing MLSs," Kelly said at the time, but is "about improving the way data moves through the system while strengthening its integrity at the source."