11 Comments

8 years has passed since your CMLS 2016 setting your destiny v2. We have several hundred fewer fiefdoms today. You were remarkably progressive and spot on. So many changes are now happening quickly. It's hard to make big changes when many MLS's are run by an association committee composed of volunteers from competing brokerages squabbling for an hour about whether to allow drone shots as primary pics or not.

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Agreed. Which is why Governance will likely be the next topic.

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In Arizona, separation is afoot! https://www.phoenixrealtors.com/main/mls-choice/

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It's the first step. The real divorce is when Phoenix REALTORS sells its stake in ARMLS.

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Yep.

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So only divesture is the only true answer to the solution? Similar to RE Colorado?

I see no substantive argument from you why allowing non-realtor access isn’t a viable solution other than just dismissing it out of hand.

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I wrote at least three paragraphs detailing why that isn't a viable solution. Don't know what to tell you.

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But why can’t the local association who owns it reap the benefits of ownership “a profit” for lack of a better term.

you assume they can’t have a profit therefore they shouldn’t own it because they can’t have a profit.

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You assume they shouldn’t govern it therefore they shouldn’t own it because they just might govern it.

Rob, your three paragraphs are infected with circular reasoning.

Its not a substantive argument if your argument relies on circular reasoning.

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Justin...it's not hard to understand. Making an agent become an NAR member to access the MLS a requirement completely (well, maybe not 100%) doesn't support the ideals of being a Realtor. Letting Uncle Bob (who is not a Realtor) have access to the MLS doesn't have anything to do with the ideals of being an NAR member. Separating the MLS from the Association WILL create a difference because only the people who strive by the ideals set forth when NAR was created will join NAR. MLS is about data access while NAR is about everything else. It's simple *positioning*.

REMAX separated themselves(positioned themselves) in the beginning because they required a desk fee whether you sold something or not. The agents who joined REMAX in the beginning were agents who were established, had a good business and could afford the fees. A new agent back then would never join REMAX because they couldn't afford to. REMAX was able to *position* themselves separate from the rest of the competition because (theoretically) only great, experienced agents could become a REMAX agent.

Eventually, REMAX changed the rules and allowed typical commission splits, and any agent could join...new or experienced. They lost their edge and their positioning and just became another real estate company.

Allowing non-Realtors access to MLS's doesn't solve....anything and is surely not tied into the ideals of being an NAR member.

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no i get it. The question is why does Realtor associations have to divest themselves of ownership when they created it in the first place.

why can’t the MLS just be run it as its own company owned by the associations and allow non-realtor access?

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