Four regional MLSs announced their support for the Open Real Estate shared-listing platform, which was recently rolled out by four of the largest brokerages in the United States to push back against Compass Real Estate’s Private Listing Network.
The founders — AGNT Inc., parent of eXp Realty and NextHome; Home Services of America Inc.; Keller Williams Realty LLC, and Real REMAX Group — also noted that the platform had received 826 letters of support from real estate brokerage leaders, and of those, 493 or 59%, came from independent firms.
According to the founders, this shows support from brokerages of every size and business model, from single-office independents to some of the largest independent brokerages in the country. Among these are Atlanta Communities, Iron Valley Real Estate, LoKation Real Estate and Realty of America.
“We have already received significant interest from across the real estate industry since our announcement, and we look forward to continuing to engage with brokerages of all sizes, MLS organizations and technology providers as we develop a platform that expands consumer choice and transparency for home buyers and sellers,” the founders said in an announcement.
Open Real Estate is designed to complement — and not compete with — existing MLS organizations and aims to work alongside the MLSs to expand access to listings for brokerages, agents and consumers, founders said.
“Broker-led innovation shouldn’t be viewed as a threat to the MLS. It’s an opportunity to strengthen the cooperation that has served our industry for decades,” NorthstarMLS President and CEO Tim Dain said. “I hope this initiative brings even more brokers and MLSs to the table.”
“We welcome the initiative of Open Real Estate and look forward to actively participating and partnering with industry leaders to build on the capabilities already in place at Bright and advance a more connected, efficient, broker-driven marketplace,” Bright MLS President and CEO Brian Donnellan said.
“[North Texas Real Estate Information Systems] remains dedicated to fostering a transparent, cooperative and neutral marketplace that serves all broker participants equally by delivering consistent listing access and empowering exceptional consumer service,” said NTREIS CEO Chris Carrillo
“Strategically, California Regional MLS and Open Real Estate are in alignment with the concept of allowing brokers to bring listing data in from outside the CRMLS MLS Input Platform,” CRMLS CEO Art Carter said. “It has been a long-term project of CRMLS to allow our brokers to have that ability. We look forward to working with Open Real Estate to see how that possibility comes to fruition within their platform.”