Exclusive: Matt Consalvo on legacy — ‘It matters how we leave people’ 

Editor's note: Real Estate News spoke at length with Matt Consalvo, the longtime CEO of ARMLS, in mid-October. He shared candid thoughts about his ALS diagnosis, his perspective on life, and how the industry needs to change. This is part two of a two-part interview.

Read part one here.

Matt Consalvo was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — also known as Lou Gehrig's disease — on May 25. Though his brain is unaffected, the terminal disease is quickly killing the nerve cells that control his basic bodily functions. We talked over Zoom on Oct. 15, about two weeks before Consalvo officially stepped down as CEO of ARMLS and handed the reins to Jeff Bosch. 

In part one of our conversation, Consalvo spoke poignantly about facing a terminal illness and the message he wants people to take away from his story. Here, he shares his hopes for the industry, the importance of working together and the words he repeats each day: "Life is short and life is fragile." 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What would you like to see happen with the MLS?

This is kind of a dangerous statement, but I think I'll make it: I'd like to see MLS policy modernized. I'd like to see it modernized for an AI-driven future by those who understand how the MLS best functions. I have mad respect for NAR, but some of their MLS policy is a little stale, and I don't see a lot of folks willing to take a look and make changes. 

We're dealing with too many lawsuits and too many threats. I'd love to see the industry rally around how to make the MLS just fantastic going forward, but everyone's protecting their own home base at this point. I understand why people are reacting the way they are, but we're not innovating anymore. We're a little stagnant.

What does modernization look like?

MLS policy has not evolved as the transaction has evolved. It's mired in a process that's steeped in years of legacy and tradition. If you go back to the 2010s, we were at least trying to solve problems. One might argue that some policies, like Clear Cooperation, weren't all good, but they were innovative. The CCP went into effect in May of 2020. Since then, point to one substantive policy that we've changed or an evolution we've made.

We have taken some rules off the books that were outdated. That's good data cleanup. Do we have other policies that should be cleaned up? I'll give you a very concrete example. We still publish a VOW policy and an IDX policy that have 90% overlap. They should become a single electronic display policy, but that hasn't gotten any momentum because no one has the time or energy or willingness to take on the heavy workload when they have other battles that need their attention today.

Who should be taking the lead — NAR?

NAR doesn't have the bandwidth. CMLS doesn't have the resources. The brokerage community would love a unified policy, but they're not in the policy business.

In the past five years, I know there have been voices in the NAR halls and the CMLS halls and in the brokerage world saying, "We should do this." Yet no one can get the work moving forward. It's hard to be innovative when you're trudging in the mud. 

Private listings have been the industry's hot button issue over the past couple of years. What's your take?

The MLS should not be guaranteed its customers — it should be fighting for its customers, and brokerages should have the opportunity to innovate. What I'm troubled by is the trend of listings not making it into the cooperative, so they're not getting the fullest exposure, which is to the benefit of the consumer. There are ways, in my opinion, that allow for both innovation and a complete marketplace, but we're just arguing and fighting right now. We're not trying to create solutions. 

Do I have the answer? No, I don't. I do know that if the MLS continues to have a less complete picture, it will fracture and it will no longer be relevant. And we need it to be relevant. I've got a kid who lives in my basement. He's a fantastic 25-year-old young man. He has a fantastic young lady friend. I think they have a great life in front of them. At some point in time, he's going to want to go buy a house. I have family in Italy, and in Italy, it's a mess. There could be six people trying to sell the same house for seven different prices. It's not a unified marketplace. There's no clarity and transparency.

I want my kid to find success, to have the American dream, and I worry about the marketplace going forward for him and for all the others like him. We don't want to move to a European model. We don't want three or four dominant brokerages with hidden listings that you have to go to individually and sign individual agreements with. Let's be better than that. Let's not be the very conspirators that some people feel we are. Let's do the right thing for my kid in the basement and everyone who wants to buy and sell homes and get the data as transparent as we can. You need completeness to do that. 

Has your perspective on industry debates changed because of your diagnosis?

It has not. My perspective has been the same for a couple of years now: We are causing more self-inflicted harm than we can afford to, and we've got to get back to working together. The moment one group walls off some section of the industry and holds it back, others will start doing it also, only because they need to keep up with the Joneses. If the MLS can't exert its might to try to bring the marketplace back into uniformity, it's just going to fracture.

What are some lessons you want to pass on to your fellow leaders?

We're stronger together than we are apart. And that goes for neighboring MLSs — we should be rolling up our sleeves and working together on things, not trying to build our own widgets and not let anyone else see them. MLSs are too competitive with each other. Now, I understand we're competing businesses. I get it. That doesn't mean we can't give the best experience to our shared customer, because out of my 40,000 subscribers, I know a couple thousand of them belong to every MLS in the state, and we should be doing things to help them and just have great delivery. 

The other thing I'd encourage is to innovate more and understand who our end user is. The consumer is not our customer, but we've got to get a little better at thinking about what tools we're delivering and how they interact with the consumer. 

Is there anything you want to say now that you've held your tongue about in the past?

Never. I try to make sure that I am fair and just in what I say. In my 20-some-odd years in the industry, I've never not said anything that I felt I should have. I've spoken my heart and my mind with balance and temperance. I love this industry, and I love the people in it. I just wish that we would realize how special it is before we make it not special.

As you're stepping away, what do you wish for the industry? And for ARMLS in particular? 

To quote Star Trek, live long and prosper. And I would remind all my peers that life is fragile. Take the trip. Make the memories. Have the experiences, because they'll all stop one day when you least expect it.

I want ARMLS to be a thousand times more successful under Jeff than it was during my time, and then I want Jeff to polish that sucker up and deeply love it, and get it ready for the next person who follows him. Because that's the legacy we should be leaving: handing things that we care deeply about over to people who also care deeply and will make them better.

What are you most focused on in your personal life?

Making my retirement plan a lot simpler so my family can manage it. Making sure we build every memory, that we have the tough conversations. You cannot shy away from them. You have to let people know where you're at and what you feel. And just loving each other, making sure that we never pass up an opportunity to break bread, to have a coffee, and to express wisdom and truth and love. 

I spend almost every minute of my week with my wife. She is with me at home. She drives me to the office because I can't drive anymore, and it's precious time together, because after 32 years, we kind of like each other. We thought we'd go hike mountains or walk ruins. Instead, we walk around Arizona and do things here, and we still get to spend time together, and that's precious. There'll be a day where that doesn't happen, and I'll be sad. Life is short and life is fragile. I can't say it enough. Those are the words I wake up to every morning, thankful that I woke up that morning.

It matters how we leave people. It doesn't matter what monument we built to ourselves. It matters how people felt when they walked away from us. I've always wanted to live that way, and I'm trying to still. 

I really appreciate you, our conversations over the years, and your willingness to answer my questions today.

Thank you very much. It's my path. I don't know why. And here's one tidbit: There are two types of ALS, sporadic and genetic. I am blessed and thankful I do not have the genetic type, so my boys don't have to look in a microscope all the time. This just happened, and no doctor in the world knows why.

I'll leave you with one last thing. I love numbers. Everything that's important to me, I track. I have been CEO for 5,358 days. I have been married for 11,667 days. 

I was diagnosed 143 days ago. So few days for such a big change.

If you would like to support ALS research and advocacy, Matt asks that you considering donating to ALS Arizona.

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