An Arlington, Texas-based real estate agent and CEO has spent the past several months pressing MLS leaders for greater transparency on how real estate data gets licensed, who profits from it and who decides what happens to it next.
Earlier this year, Smokey Garrett, GO Network founder and CEO, briefed agent leadership councils across the brokerage’s 13 market centers on a national online portal participation agreement. Garrett walked section by section through where listing photos and data travel, how buyer leads get routed and whether contributed content can ever be reclaimed once it’s out.
The briefing zeroed in on the data rights buried in the fine print, including resyndication, sub-licensing and whether data could be trained for artificial intelligence models. Underneath all of it, Garrett says, one liability question stood out: Brokers, under the agreement’s terms, are on the hook for the data license forever.
Garrett believes the future of real estate data can’t be decided without meaningful input from the brokerages carrying the liability for listings and the agents whose fiduciary relationships and expertise create the underlying value.
Those questions have driven his discussions with leaders of MetroTex Association of Realtors and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems (NTREIS). The talks put data control, transparency and the MLS’s future role at the center of a “broader industry reckoning,” according to Garrett.
MetroTex Association of Realtors recently announced NTREIS Rewards, a new initiative recognizing brokers’ role in contributing the listing data that powers the system. MetroTex Association of Realtors leadership framed it as a deliberate shift toward making brokers a bigger focus of the organization’s mission.
Garrett sees that as a real step, just not the whole conversation. He views it as one piece of a much larger issue involving control, access, governance and the future use of real estate data.
Smokey Garrett | Credit: LinkedIn
Inman recently caught up with Garrett, where he discussed the changes he’d like to see for brokers, his read on NTREIS Rewards, and why the issue is bigger than any one company, MLS, or local market.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Inman: What specifically concerned you enough about this issue to brief 13 market centers section by section?
Smokey Garrett: When this first came across my desk, it started as a conversation about participation in the online portal agreement. But the more we dug into it, the more we realized this wasn’t just about one agreement; it was about the future of our agents’ businesses.
I wanted the ALCs across all 13 GO Network market centers to fully understand what these terms could mean for their listing content, photography, consumer relationships and, ultimately, the value of the businesses they’re building.
As we reviewed the language, it became clear there were much bigger questions to ask around perpetual licensing, sublicensing, lead routing, ownership and the ongoing responsibilities agents could be accepting. Those aren’t small details; they’re business decisions that deserve careful consideration.
Our ALCs exist to be the voice of the agent. Before anyone makes decisions that could impact their business long-term, they deserve to understand both the opportunities and the potential consequences.
The online portal agreement may have been what started the conversation, but it was never the whole conversation. It simply brought a much larger issue into focus, one that every real estate professional should understand as our industry continues to evolve.
Can you give a concrete example of data being resyndicated, sub-licensed or used for AI training in a way you think brokers didn’t understand they’d agreed to?
I think a lot of brokers believe they’re simply authorizing a listing to be displayed online. But when you really read the language, it appears to allow for much broader use of that content long after the original purpose has been fulfilled.
Once listing data, photos or other content can be sublicensed or incorporated into other products, it becomes much harder for brokers and agents to know where it’s going, how it’s being used or whether they have any meaningful control over it.
If you look at Zillow’s general Terms of Use, for example, Section 7 grants a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license that includes the ability to use, modify, create derivative works from, distribute and sublicense uploaded content. That’s the type of language every broker should understand before deciding what they’re agreeing to.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that any specific company is using listing content to train AI unless there’s evidence to support that claim. That’s not the point.
The real issue is understanding what these agreements actually allow. Our industry is changing quickly, and the rights we grant today could have implications we haven’t fully considered yet. As brokers, we have a responsibility to ask those questions, understand the long-term impact, and make informed decisions that protect both our agents and the businesses they’re working so hard to build.
You mentioned that brokers bear liability ‘forever’ for the data license. What does that liability actually expose a broker to in practice?
One of the things that stood out to me is the ongoing responsibility these agreements can place on brokers. The indemnification language isn’t limited to today. It can extend to third-party claims related to the content that’s been uploaded or how the agreement is interpreted.
What really caught my attention is that some of these provisions survive even after the agreement ends. The license being granted is described as perpetual and irrevocable, while the obligations can continue long after the broker no longer has practical control over where that content goes or how it may be used.
That’s the question we should all be asking: Is there an appropriate balance between the responsibility we’re accepting and the control we’re retaining? As brokers, we owe it to our agents to understand those implications before we sign on the dotted line.
At GO Network, we also believe we have a fiduciary responsibility to the consumer and to the data they’ve entrusted to us. We take that responsibility seriously. Too often, the industry is filled with companies deciding what’s best for the consumer without ever giving the consumer, or the professional they’ve chosen to represent them, a meaningful voice in that decision.
Our goal isn’t to limit innovation or stop progress. It’s to make sure the playing field is level. Consumers deserve transparency, choice and the ability to decide how their information is used. Agents deserve the opportunity to continue serving their clients in the way that’s best for them, not based on what benefits a platform, but on what truly benefits the consumer.
At the end of the day, this isn’t about resisting change. It’s about making sure the future of real estate is built in a way that protects consumer choice, respects property rights and preserves the trusted relationship between an agent and the client they’ve been hired to serve.
What’s the actual policy change or governance structure you want?
As an industry, I think there are a few things we should all be able to agree on.
Brokers deserve to clearly understand exactly what rights they’re granting when they contribute listing data and content. There shouldn’t be any guesswork. The language should be straightforward, transparent and easy to understand.
If those rights or the intended uses of that content are going to change in a meaningful way, brokers should have advance notice and an opportunity to understand what those changes mean before they’re implemented.
Brokers should also have a seat at the table when decisions are being made about licensing, commercialization and the future use of the content they provide. After all, that content exists because brokers and agents invest the time, money and expertise to create it.
If listing content is being shared, sublicensed or provided to other parties, there should be transparency around where it’s going, who’s receiving it and how it’s being used. If that content creates value for others, those conversations should happen in the open.
We should also have practical ways to correct information, remove content when appropriate or opt out where possible. As technology continues to evolve, especially with AI, we need clear governance around how listing content can be used to build new products and services.
And finally, responsibility and control should go hand in hand. If brokers no longer control where their content goes or how it’s used, there should be reasonable limits on the liability they’re expected to carry.
I’m not asking brokers to run the MLS or control its day-to-day operations. What I am asking for is meaningful broker representation whenever significant decisions are being made about the content brokers contribute, the rights they’re granting and the responsibilities they’re expected to assume.
Those conversations shouldn’t happen around us; they should happen with us. That’s how we build trust, protect consumers and create an industry that’s stronger for everyone.
NTREIS Rewards just launched. Do you see that as a genuine response to the pressure you’ve been applying or a symbolic gesture that avoids the harder governance questions?
I appreciate what NTREIS is trying to accomplish with the Rewards program. I see it as a meaningful acknowledgment that the data brokers and agents contribute has real value. That’s an important step, and I don’t dismiss it.
But I also don’t believe it’s the end of the conversation. I believe it’s the beginning of a much larger one.
Recognizing that broker-contributed data has value is different from giving brokers a meaningful voice in how that data is licensed, commercialized and governed in the future.
There are still important questions that deserve thoughtful discussion.
- How will this content be used as technology evolves?
- Who will have access to it?
- What happens when it’s sublicensed or incorporated into new products?
- What responsibilities continue to rest with brokers, and what role should brokers have in those decisions?
Those are the conversations I believe our industry needs to have.
The Rewards program is a positive step because it acknowledges that broker-contributed content creates value. Now let’s build on that momentum by ensuring the people who create that value, and who have the fiduciary relationship with the consumer, have a meaningful seat at the table as the future of our industry is being shaped.
That’s not about looking backward. It’s about making sure we get the future right.
You say this ‘will not stop here.’ What does going national actually look like?
To me, this conversation has never been about one company, one MLS or one market. The questions we’re asking are bigger than that. They affect every brokerage, every MLS, every franchise organization, every technology partner and, ultimately, every consumer who depends on our industry.
That’s why I believe this conversation needs to include everyone who has a role in shaping the future of real estate: brokerage leaders, MLSs, franchise organizations, technology and portal partners, national associations and the professionals who serve consumers every day.
The opportunity isn’t to debate the past. The opportunity is to come together and establish principles that help guide the future, principles built around transparency, meaningful representation, responsible stewardship of data and thoughtful communication whenever material changes are being considered.
If we can create those standards together, everyone benefits. Consumers benefit. Agents benefit. Brokers benefit. Technology companies benefit. Our entire industry becomes stronger.
This isn’t about a North Texas issue. It’s about a national conversation that every real estate leader should be paying attention to. Our industry is evolving rapidly. We have a unique opportunity to shape that evolution together instead of reacting to it after the fact.
I believe that’s the responsibility of leadership. And I believe if we approach these conversations with openness, collaboration, and a shared commitment to putting the consumer first, we’ll build an industry that’s even stronger for the next generation than it is today.
