One of the nation’s largest multiple listing services is now sharing listing information with a dozen other MLSs across the country through a tool from real estate information and technology firm CoreLogic.
Lisle, Ill.-based Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) serves nearly 40,000 members belonging to 12 Realtor associations in the Chicago metro area.
Today, MRED announced it had signed agreements with 12 MLSs to jointly participate in CoreLogic’s MLS Data Co-Op, a map-based interface that allows agents from different MLSs to share listing information accessible via a single screen through their MLS.
MRED contributes nearly 66,000 listings to MLS Data Co-Op. Through these agreements, MRED members are seeing another 257,000 listings, MRED told Inman News.
Data Co-op also provides property data and reports such as RealAVM valuations, tax records, listing history, nearby schools, neighborhood data, community demographics, real estate trends and foreclosure information in a consolidated dashboard view for each listing. The tool is not directly available to consumers.
MRED first rolled out the data-sharing tool a year ago, using it only for its own listing data at first. Now, partnerships with other MLSs like the Houston Association of Realtors, My Florida Regional MLS and the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors mean MRED’s members can search and view listings and public records from other MLSs across the country. MRED said its members’ listings also gain wider marketing exposure, helping them develop expanded referral networks.
“It is a priority for MRED to enhance our customers’ ability to have access to the best information, increase their business and establish networks with other professionals around the country,” said MRED CEO Russ Bergeron in a statement. “We view the MLS Data Co-Op as one of the most effective ways we can support our brokers and their associates.”
The 12 MLSs are:
- Realtor Association of Citrus County (Florida)
- Daytona Beach Area Association of Realtors (Florida)
- Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (Nevada)
- Greenville Pitt Association of Realtors (North Carolina)
- Houston Association of Realtors (Texas)
- My Florida Regional MLS
- North Carolina Mountains MLS
- New Smyrna Beach Board of Realtors (Florida)
- Realcomp (Detroit)
- Miami Association of Realtors (Florida)
- SIRMLS (Illinois)
- Western Arizona Realtor Data Exchange
Since many of those markets are in the Sun Belt, MRED touted the agreements as a way to help its members find winter vacation homes for their clients. MRED is currently working on agreements with other MLSs as well, focusing on areas of most interest to those in the greater Chicago area, said MRED spokesman Jeff Lasky.
MLS Data Co-op is one of more than 20 products and services MRED offers its customers. In July, MRED won an Inman News Innovator Award for Most Innovative MLS or Real Estate Trade Association.
In May, CoreLogic announced that more than 100 MLSs nationwide had signed up to participate in MLS Data Co-Op. At the time, CoreLogic noted that using data standards from the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) made it fast and easy for almost any MLS to join the program. Those standards include the Data Dictionary, which are standardized MLS data definitions that RESO has recently updated.
Large brokerage network The Realty Alliance named inconsistent data standards across MLSs as one of a list of grievances that has sparked debate across the industry over the relationship between MLSs and their brokers, and the respective roles of each.
In January, four Florida Realtor associations joined MLS Data Co-Op. Two of them were participating members of the Florida Gulf Coast MLS, which explained its decision to sign up for the tool in a white paper.
“It is evident that brokers want standardized rules, consistent rules enforcement, a single standard data feed, and generally fewer MLSs to deal with — data sharing is a valuable step in providing these benefits,” the paper said.
“Data sharing is a way for our MLS to provide brokers and agents with access to increased information from other MLSs without the challenges or delays commonly associated with mergers, consolidation or regionalization.”
