A week after its debut, Open Real Estate has collected 826 letters of support from brokerage leaders, according to the group, and the heads of four multiple listing services have issued statements ranging from a pledge to partner to an invitation for dialogue.
Independent brokerages submitted 493 of the letters, Open Real Estate said Monday. The group named Atlanta Communities, Iron Valley Real Estate, LoKation Real Estate and Realty of America among the supporters.
Open Real Estate is in conversations with brokerages about joining, including Compass, according to an Open Real Estate spokesperson. The founders told Inman last week that Compass is welcome to become a participating member.
The announcement did not say how many signers plan to join the platform. Brown Harris Stevens, Iron Valley, Lamacchia Realty, Samson Properties and Windermere Real Estate make up its first group of participating brokerages. AGNT, HomeServices of America, Keller Williams and Real REMAX Group founded the initiative and told Inman they plan to spend the next six months building the platform and collecting feedback from brokerages, franchisors, agents and MLSs ahead of a first-quarter 2027 launch.
“We welcome the initiative of Open Real Estate and look forward to actively participating and partnering with industry leaders to build on the capabilities already in place at Bright and advance a more connected, efficient, broker-driven marketplace,” Bright MLS President and CEO Brian Donnellan said in a statement.
Bright partnered with Compass in May, when Donnellan wrote that Compass had committed to making its nationwide data available to Bright subscribers.
California Regional Multiple Listing Service CEO Art Carter said his organization and Open Real Estate align on letting brokers bring listing data in from outside the CRMLS input platform.
“We look forward to working with Open Real Estate to see how that possibility comes to fruition within their platform,” Carter said in a statement.
North Texas Real Estate Information Systems CEO Chris Carrillo said in a statement that NTREIS welcomes “constructive dialogue” with the group. NorthstarMLS President and CEO Tim Dain said he hopes the initiative brings more brokers and MLSs to the table.
“Broker-led innovation shouldn’t be viewed as a threat to the MLS,” Dain said in a statement. “It’s an opportunity to strengthen the cooperation that has served our industry for decades.”
“A platform like this must have a capable technology vendor behind it, but much more importantly, it needs the cooperation of local MLSs,” Craig Cheatham of The Realty Alliance told Inman last week.
Open Real Estate would let brokers enter a listing once and share it with other participants, MLSs and portals. Brokers can instead limit a listing to participants, but they cannot then market it publicly anywhere else. The group’s FAQ says it is not a national MLS and that local MLSs will keep their own rules.
The initiative comes as Compass and MLSs fight in court over rules on publicly marketing listings kept off the MLS. Nine MLSs are now suing Compass across two federal lawsuits after MLSListings said Monday that it had joined a suit six other MLSs filed on Oct. 21. A Compass spokesperson responded to that suit in October by saying homeowners should be able to publicly market any listing.
CRMLS sued Compass on Oct. 5, asking a federal judge to declare its rules lawful, and OneKey MLS has since joined that suit. Compass filed its own antitrust suit against CRMLS on Oct. 16.
Compass International Holdings CEO Robert Reffkin congratulated the founders on LinkedIn at launch, saying the platform would return power to homeowners and their agents.
