Amid a growing wave of alliances between the nation’s largest brokerages and consumer-facing real estate portals — and fresh questions about the future of the multiple listing service — leaders of some of the country’s biggest listing services say the industry is headed toward fewer MLSs.
But they also agree that the endgame isn’t a single national system.
Interviews with three MLS executives show broad agreement that consolidation among smaller MLSs will continue, and that pressure from brokerages, new technology and consumers is forcing MLSs to evolve. But they also show sharp disagreement about how far that consolidation should go and what role MLSs should play as companies like Zillow, Redfin and Compass reshape how listings reach buyers.
“When I started in 2005, there were close to 1,000 MLSs. And in the report that came out [this month], we’re under 500,” CRMLS CEO Art Carter said. “I know that there are quite a few efforts trying to merge additional organizations that … in the next maybe two years, we’ll get under 400.”
Art Carter
Carter should know: He said he’s consulting with groups working to consolidate a handful of MLSs this year.
“I know that there’s quite a few efforts going on and a lot of discussions in regards to some of those things,” Carter said, declining to name the groups he has been working with.
Inman spoke with the executives from CRMLS, BeachesMLS and the Northwest MLS in the days after Compass and Rocket announced a partnership to display coming soon listings on Redfin. These conversations preceded later announcements that showed similar displays will exist on Zillow, Realtor.com and Homes.com.
Two of the executives said that they believed agents within the mega-brokerage Compass would comply with local MLS rules around pre-marketing listings. (NWMLS CEO Justin Haag declined to speak about the partnership, citing an ongoing lawsuit with Compass.)
Haag did fear that such agreements will lead to the fragmentation of real estate search.
“When I’m searching for a property, if I have to go look at 30 different portals to find out the full picture of the market, that’s very problematic,” Haag said. “That’s going to be very challenging for consumers to have to manage that.”
How low can it go?
When he took the stage at Inman Connect New York in February, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin floated the idea that there could be a single national MLS.
Anne Marie DeCatseye | Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services
Shortly after, Canopy MLS CEO Anne Marie DeCatsye said a more appropriate number may be “maybe 25” MLSs in the country.
Each of the executives believes that significant consolidation will continue. But each disagreed with the concept of a single MLS.
The number of MLSs in the U.S. has already fallen from more than 1,000 in the early 2000s to about 484 today.
“I think everyone agrees [it’s] too many,” Haag said.
Carter suggested there could be something closer to one for each state, with perhaps more for regions that are truly distinct from others in a given state.
“I think you’re probably going to settle in that 50 to 60 range,” Carter said.
Haag stopped short of putting a specific number on the right level of consolidation.
“What’s the right number? I don’t know,” Haag said. “Maybe it’s 100, maybe it’s 50, maybe it’s 20. I don’t think it’s one.”
BeachesMLS CEO Dionna Hall called a single national MLS a “logistical nightmare to run.”
Dionna Hall
“Calling for one sounds like a great idea,” Hall said. “I understand from a brokerage standpoint, it may sound like a great idea from where that person is standing and maybe the background that they come from. But I don’t think it’s as practical as one may think from the outside looking in.”
“Since I pretty much entered this industry 20 years ago, there has been a call for more consolidation,” Hall said. “One of the great things is that the MLSs have, for the most part, taken that seriously and [that’s] a big reason why you’ve seen over the years these MLSs consolidating. We obviously want to make sure that we are making this market work for our brokers.”
Compass-Rocket-Redfin
When Zillow unveiled its partnerships to display pre-market listings from agents at a slate of brokerages, the portal said it would comply with the local MLSs’ rules and regulations around marketing listings.
If ensuing brokerages and portals also follow suit, the MLS executives pointed to their existing policies.
“CRMLS still does have CCP in place. We’ll continue to have it in place for the long term,” Carter said.
“We have a coming soon status. We do send it out via IDX,” Carter said. “The delayed marketing, my board’s decided to set it at zero days. So there is no delayed marketing.”
NWMLS stands out as an MLS that doesn’t allow for coming-soon listings, potentially blocking the pre-marketing of listings in that region.
Justin Haag
“We never have,” Haag said. “Coming soon is arguably a misrepresentation because you’re telling consumers that this house is coming soon to the market when really you can buy it today. So it’s not coming soon. It’s already for sale.”
BeachesMLS allows for listings to stay in a Coming Soon status for up to 21 days without accruing days on market. It also allows for delayed marketing exempt listings for up to 21 days without being shared via a broker IDX feed, Hall said.
“So we feel that those two pre-marketing statuses are already very flexible, and we hope that Compass can work within [them],” Hall said. “I will tell you in the South Florida marketplace, we have very innovative brokerage models.”
For his part, Carter said that he didn’t view CRMLS as being in competition with Zillow.
“MLSs provide services to brokers and agents. Zillow provides services to consumers,” Carter said. “They can still be a great partner to the MLS industry.”
“We can’t be so ignorant at the MLS level to think that Zillow and Homes and Realtor.com are not going to pivot in any way that is going to benefit their shareholders,” Carter added. “That being said, they still can be a great partner to the MLS industry. It’s just a matter of making sure that we at the MLS level do what we need to do, which is providing people with that transparent marketplace, that complete marketplace, as much as possible.”
