The MLS mess and how to dig out of it

Roughly 900 MLSs serve real estate markets across the United States and nearly all of them are in danger of becoming extinct. It’s time for MLSs to realize there is a new master in town – the consumer – and they will need to shift their thinking to how to serve this segment to stay alive.

The MLS mess is evident on many levels. Inconsistent methods for measuring and communicating basic property data continue to plague the systems. The same parcel can be measured in square feet within one MLS and as acreage in another. One MLS will record a partial bathroom as one-tenth, and another simply says partial bath. Some markets still struggle with the hard grip on information like those in which MLSs will not allow property addresses to be displayed.

This mess causes unbelievable problems for technology systems, brokers who are trying to serve areas that fall into more than one MLS’ turf, and consumers who just want to be able to compare homes in their searches.

It’s true that MLSs were not built as consumer utilities, but the reality is that the world has changed drastically since most opened their doors many decades ago. Because most MLSs do not feel the need to serve consumers, an unmet need already has been seized by online companies offering easy access to information.

Here are three things that brokers, agents and MLSs should do now to shift their place in the new world and secure value propositions that are consistent with the needs of the marketplace:

1. Make data transparent and consistent. Real estate data needs to be readily available to everyone in order to conform to today’s standards and the way in which consumers expect to interact with the industry. And this data needs to be consistent. A partial bathroom must be defined and consistent from MLS to MLS – at least among geographically neighboring MLSs.

2. Accept their new roles. We all understand that MLSs initially were not built as databases to be seen and utilized by consumers, but it’s time to grow past this and catch up with the modern world. MLSs and agents alike need to get beyond the notion that they are guardians of some secret treasure. Information is ubiquitous in a Web-enabled world.

3. Become consumer-centric. Once everyone accepts that they have a new role with consumers beyond information gatekeeper, each can focus on building an incredible set of services around the data that is now everywhere. MLSs can focus on providing technology or governance services to members. Agents can focus on helping consumers interpret all this data and process it in a way that helps them meet their housing goals.

Releasing data is the best thing that could ever happen to the real estate industry. When consumers reach a point where they have so much information to the point of being overwhelmed, suddenly, the agent is even more necessary to the process. Consumers need the expertise of an agent to help guide them through all this information and match it to their lifestyles in a way that makes sense.

Comments

[leroybrown]

lol and then there was none