Multiple listing services have driven the industry’s biggest debates over the past year, as major brokerages and portals clash over market transparency, consumer choice, and who has the final say on the ownership and distribution of listing data.
However, Hive MLS CEO Daniel Jones believes that amid the noise, the industry has lost sight of the MLS’s true purpose, prompting him to publish the “Declaration of MLS Stewardship Principles” ahead of the Council of Multiple Listing Services’ annual conference next week.
Daniel Jones
“The MLS is not simply a database, a set of rules or a technology platform,” Jones said on Tuesday. “It is the cooperative infrastructure that allows competitors to work together while preserving a marketplace built on trusted information, transparency and an equal opportunity to compete.”
The declaration highlights the MLS’s role as a steward of the marketplace across nine areas of responsibility, including:
- Preserving and strengthening the marketplace for buyers, sellers and brokers
- Providing accurate, complete and timely information
- Upholding data and data use, participation and licensing standards
- Earning and maintaining the trust of brokers, consumers and the public at-large
- Protecting the opportunity to compete by keeping the marketplace equally accessible to every qualified participant, regardless of differentiating factors (e.g. brokerage size or model)
- Ensuring data cooperation between participants, with a focus on timeliness, accuracy and completeness
- Defining the boundary between the cooperative marketplace and public marketing
- Fostering an industry that embraces innovation while honoring its purpose
- Safeguarding local market knowledge
Jones said the declaration is the culmination of conversations he’s had with fellow MLS leaders and shouldn’t be taken as a consolidation effort, strategy document or guide as to how any one MLS should operate. The Hive MLS CEO also made it clear the document isn’t an anti-National Association of Realtors initiative, nodding to friction over how the trade group has handled Clear Cooperation and policies governing access to Realtor-affiliated MLSs.
“This was never a solo effort. Michael Wurzer (FBS) planted the seed for an MLS constitution,” he said. “Nicole Jensen (realMLS) crystallized why it matters when she said, ‘We have spent years explaining the value of the MLS. I think the more important conversation now is about its significance. And Andrew Coca’s (sourceRE) thinking about innovation, stewardship and data helped shape how these declarations could become a practical framework for data governance.”
Jones is asking industry members to sign the declaration, after which they’ll receive a PDF copy of the document. The declaration’s landing page also includes access to “The Keeper of Mendota Meadows: The road nobody planned,” a short story that illustrates the “cooperation, competition and stewardship” that undergird the MLS model.
“The Declaration is intended to start a much larger conversation,” Jones said. “The marketplace will continue to change. Technology will change. Business models will change. MLS organizations themselves may change. That makes it even more important to identify the responsibilities that should endure.”
Read the full declaration below:
