Multiple listing consortium MLS RoundTable announced today that it will move toward creating a consolidated backend, combining feeds, eliminating RETS servers, and other changes.
The group counts more than 300,000 real estate professionals under its service umbrella, with Bright MLS on the East Coast, CRMLS in California, CarolinaMLS in the Charlotte area, MLS PIN in Massachusetts, Chicagoland’s MRED, NorthstarMLS representing Minnesota and Wisconsin, NWMLS in Washington state, and RealTracs representing the mid-South.
The initiative for change came in response to a research project MLS RoundTable undertook with Stefan Swanepoel's T360 consulting firm between June and August 2017 to identify the most significant issues that the MLS industry will face in the near future. The results of the study were published last fall under the title "
MLS 2020 Agenda." “The agenda ignited an industrywide discussion, and the MLSRT members have agreed to step up and lead by example,” says David Charron, chief strategy officer of Bright MLS.
The four specific steps the eight members of MLS RoundTable pledged to undertake are:
- Adopt Real Estate Standards Organization rules for displaying listing fields. RESO was created in 2002 as an independent, not-for-profit trade organization to promote standardization of listing data.
- End Real Estate Transaction Standard accounts. “It’s also time to do away with the RETS servers,” says Art Carter, CEO of the California Regional Multiple Listing Service. “Most MLSRT members are moving toward attaining platinum certification in the web API. Once in place, the intent is to give out only platinum feeds.”
- Endorse a single source of data coming out of MLSs and create a common IDX feed to serve as a single data point of access for MLSs and brokers. “We need to agree to certain platforms, so we are all adopting this standardized point of data access and management,” says MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen.
- Join a consolidated back end. This will provide users with a common data repository, though the group says real estate professionals in the field will be able to use their “front end of choice.”
“We applaud the initiatives that are being taken by MLS organizations across the country, and specifically the strong commitment by the large MLS companies in the MLSRT,” says Swanepoel. “MLSs can remain relevant if they innovate and lead the transformation of the multiple listing services offered to real estate professionals.”
Charron estimates that most MLS RoundTable members will have completed the first two steps by September, the third by the end of 2018, and the fourth by the end of 2019.
Source: "MLS RoundTable Members Lay Out Four-Step Plan to Revolutionize the MLS Industry," T360 (April 4, 2018)
