At last week’s CMLS conference, I facilitated the Consolidation Panel with Dionna Hall, CEO of the newly merged Miami and Palm Beaches MLS organization; Robert Botts, attorney involved in the sale of REcolorado to a private entity; and Dave Howe, CEO of Metrolist MLS, who discussed Orion, a regional data exchange spanning Sacramento, Reno and Oregon. There was one major takeaway. Sticking to historical thinking, avoiding conversations with competitive MLSs while your brokers are asking for you to simplify their businesses is not appropriate anymore.
We discussed three very different approaches with one clear message:
If you want to know where MLS collaboration and consolidation need to go next, ask your brokers.
Gretchen Rosenberg, head of Industry Relations for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, shared that her company participates in 253 MLSs. That means hundreds of different rule sets, data licensing approaches, systems and operating requirements. For brokerages operating in more than one MLS market, MLSs are complicating their business operations and making it more expensive to support agents and clients.
The brokerage footprint is increasingly defining the marketplace.
The real issue today is friction. Approximately 42% of practitioners belong to more than one MLS. That means duplicate fees, multiple systems, different rules, repeated listing maintenance and higher data aggregation costs.
And all of this is happening while real estate volume is roughly 35% smaller than it was just a few years ago and brokerage consolidation continues. Whether you serve 200 subscribers or 20,000, the question is the same:
Are you making it unnecessarily difficult or expensive for brokers to operate across the markets they serve? If the answer is yes, something needs to change.
Lessons from a merger with 96,000 Subscribers
Dionna Hall said the Miami/Palm Beaches merger was driven by brokers already doing business across Southeast Florida. Their business footprint had moved beyond traditional MLS boundaries and the two MLSs needed to solve that challenge. While the two markets were aggressive competitors, they put those differences aside to do the right thing for their brokerages. They identified and agreed to a merger in just 5 weeks.
Brokers do NOT have to sit at the Board table to create an Effective MLS
Robert Botts took the conversation into governance. He described a model built around a business-skilled board, supported by a Broker Advisory Council that helps inform policy. Instead of relying on governance models modelling Associations with ever-changing leadership and a lack of outside business and technology expertise, REColorado is still serving the needs of its customers well.
He also made an important point for any MLS considering a sale or major structural change: define the protections before negotiating the deal. What happens to pricing? Will all legitimate brokerage models be supported? What service levels will be required? How will customer satisfaction be monitored? Articulate all those questions BEFORE you get approached. Determine the value of your MLS with an unbiased financial assessment so you know how valuable your MLS asset is.
Data Exchanges expand business potential
Dave Howe showed another path with Orion. By placing data from Northern California, Reno, Nevada and Oregon into a shared repository, practitioners can access inventory across participating markets without requiring a traditional merger. Data exchanges can create referral opportunities beyond one local market.
Collaboration is NOT only accomplished by Mergers
While mergers can improve buying power, improve services and reduce operating costs for practitioners, broker pain points can be solved in other ways. Shared services, common data infrastructure, reciprocal access, standardized rules or regional exchanges can also make it easier for brokerages to operate more profitably.
Start Conversations with your Brokers ASAP
It’s time to get on with it. Ask your brokers where the friction is. Identify the rules, systems and boundaries creating unnecessary cost. Then start removing them. Remember to meet with brokerages of all sizes, business models and focuses. While large brokers have challenges so do smaller brokerages that may need different services from you.
Field a Customer Experience Index Survey
WAV Group surveys over 300,000 agents and brokers annually to get a read on the key strengths of MLSs and the tangible ways to improve awareness, engagement and satisfaction and brand loyalty for the services being offered with its Customer Experience Index survey. If you have not polled your subscribers recently then it’s time to do that now, before the end of the year so you can establish a baseline moving into 2027.
If you need help with identifying how to reduce friction for your brokers, learn how much your MLS is worth or measure customer satisfaction, we’re here to help.
Please contact us below.
