For decades, WAV Group has provided companies with consulting services to expand into, or out of the United States. It is less than 10% of our business, but provides us with a constant reminder that we must all be mindful of approaching industry policies with an unbiased perspective.
For many real estate industries around the world, the MLS is the pinnacle of a collaborative, open market that serves consumers and professionals alike. In every country without an MLS, the portals hold real estate professionals and consumers hostage for exorbitant advertising fees. They want to create an MLS to keep the portals in check.
I offered a playbook for starting an MLS where they do not exist today.
Stage 1 -
Don’t focus on sharing active listings. Focus on contributing sold records to a common data repository. Use them for comps. Over time, the records create a library, which becomes a common asset.
Most importantly, these cooperatives will need the participation of enough brokers in the market to create a library with a reasonable enough amount of data to reach a minimum threshold of value. For example, a company that manages listings outside of America for eXp, Keller Williams, and RE/MAX. I am sure that there are others. Why not use that data as a base for creating an MLS cooperative?
Stage 2 -
For active listings, focus on delivering a copyright service to protect the artwork of photography, property description prose, and the collage of the completed listing. The cooperative can also copyright the data schema and the data business rules. This would allow the cooperative to protect against art theft–like Getty Images. However, the active listings would not be shared among brokers. It is not the custom outside of the United States, so stay clear of it.
Stage 3 -
Provide a low-cost active listing repository for contributing brokerages to share active listing inventory. This could start out as a cooperative used in CMAs for pricing, but eventually lead to the development of something like the Broker Public Portal–an industry-owned competitive hedge against the power of the listing portals.
Stage 4 -
On behalf of the contributing brokers, find revenue opportunities for data licensing. Much in the same way that CoreLogic’s Partner InfoNet program pays $2 million for licensing data, there is a strong appetite among mortgage, insurance, and global capital markets across the world. This is an untapped revenue opportunity for brokers globally that is untapped.
Stage 5 -
If brokers in the market agree – share active listing data to support brokers finding homes for buyers. This last stage is the one that stops MLSs from organizing around the world. They do not want to share inventory with competitors, mostly because they do not trust each other or are scared of change. As I have stated, if this last stage is a bridge too far, stay away from it until the market matures. There are so many great things the MLS can do without this stage of cooperation.
Stage 6 -
MLS Consumer Facing Website – Honestly, I do not think that this stage needs to come last. It can come at any time the cooperating brokers agree. Portals hold brokers hostage around the world for exorbitant advertising fees for listings. Like the Broker Public Portal here in America, MLSs abroad can offer the most comprehensive listing portal for participating brokers as part of the cooperative for an incredibly low fee as a hedge against the advertising sites.
