DOUG AZARIAN
MLSs will survive
The national trade association representing Realtors is exploring the possibility of creating a nationwide database that would include comprehensive information about properties.
The database would feature all kinds of information – from aerial maps to room dimensions to property history. Realtors from every state would be able to access it and get information about any property in the country.
“It’s a single place that members can go to find out everything about that property, probably more information than a consumer can find on the Internet themselves,” said Mark Lesswing, senior vice president and chief technology officer for the National Association of Realtors.
Lesswing presented a general overview of the database at the Massachusetts Association of Realtors’ annual conference and tradeshow last Wednesday in Providence, R.I. The conference drew about 600 agents and brokers from throughout the Bay State.
The database, which is known as the National Real Estate Gateway, could help Realtors provide more accurate and detailed information to buyers and sellers. “You should have better information than the people you work with. Being surprised by things or not knowing the answer is really not good for business in the long term,” Lesswing told MAR members.
Many Realtors fear that the database will become a national multiple listing service that will replace local listing services. Realtors pay fees to have access to and share information about properties on listing services. There are more than 800 multiple listing services throughout the country. A number of listings services are run by local Realtor associations and generate a substantial amount of revenue.
In Massachusetts, several Realtor groups operate and control listing services, including the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors and the Berkshire County Board of Realtors. Over the years, multiple listing services in Massachusetts and in other states have consolidated.
Most recently, the North Bristol County Association of Realtors voted to dissolve its MLS and join the MLS Property Information Network. MLS PIN, a privately owned multiple listing service, bills itself as the largest in New England. It provides services to more than 90 percent of Massachusetts and parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
Lesswing emphasized that the gateway is not intended to replace MLSs or force them to merge.
“It’s not an MLS. You still have a local MLS. You still need that MLS. You still need that local control,” he said.
Instead, the database would collect information from MLSs and other sources.
“But clearly all the information can’t come from the MLS. There has to be appraisal-type data, history, photos from the past. I envision a very interesting application being built for a Web site where a consumer can look at a home and by moving a little bar back and forth they can go back and forth in time and see the house morph from 1950 to now,” Lesswing said.
NAR has established a committee to explore the concept. The committee is expected to present a report to NAR President Pat Combs in November.
Funds Set Aside
MAR President Doug Azarian said the national database could help local Realtors who often have turned to various sources in search of information on a property. Sometimes the information isn’t updated, he explained.
Many Bay State Realtors aren’t familiar with the National Real Estate Gateway proposal, according to Azarian. Some MAR leaders learned more about the idea at the midyear legislative meetings that NAR organized in May
“The national association took a vote [at that time] and decided to provide resources to move on with the exploration or investigation of the National Real Estate Gateway,” said Azarian.
Lesswing said NAR has set aside funds to facilitate a gateway. “Facilitate doesn’t mean we’re going to build it,” he said.
Peter P. Casey, a Weston Realtor, said a nationwide database could be beneficial to Bay State agents who are interested in getting information about properties listed in neighboring states. For example, a Realtor in Massachusetts who wants information about property in New Hampshire may not have easy access to it unless that Realtor belongs to the MLS in New Hampshire.
“It won’t necessarily put them on an even playing field but it will give them access to data that will help them to negotiate cooperation and compensation across MLS lines,” said Casey, owner of Prudential Wilmot Whitney Real Estate. “Whatever this gateway entity is or becomes will essentially aggregate all the data from MLSs that want to participate and then make it available to Realtors so that they could contact each other to do business. Whether it goes any further than that, who knows? It may, it may not. It depends at that point on the participants.”
NAR has been clear that it is not trying to eliminate multiple listing services or force them to consolidate, according to Casey.
“MLSs are so important to local associations that the thought of dismantling them is anathema,’ he said.
He added, “I think what NAR has been very careful about is that NAR is not trying to dictate mergers here. They’re not trying to force MLSs to join together. They’re trying to make the marketplace more efficient by giving the information Realtors need across MLS lines. Cooperation and compensation is still up to an individual MLS.”
