If you ask an MLS exec what an MLS is, he or she will likely answer that it’s an organization dedicated to providing real estate broker participants with a platform to share listing data and facilitate the offer of cooperation and compensation. That’s not wrong. It’s a definition that the NAR and the Council of MLSs agree on. The problem is that this definition doesn’t even begin to describe what it means to be an MLS. Not even close. MLSs today are so disparate that they are almost unrecognizable as being of the same species. They range in size from fewer than 100 subscribers to more than 80,000. Some are separately and wholly owned by associations of Realtors, some by brokers. Some have representative governance, and some do not. Some are specifically designed to run as close to break-even as possible, some are powerful money makers. Some facilitate data access to brokers, some inhibit it. Some offer a suite of products and services to enhance subscriber productivity, and …
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