MLS to open the access to online realtors
For those of you who don’t know MLS, it stands for Multiple Listing Service. It is a database created by National Association of Realtors (NAR) to host the home for sale records. It was created for collaboration among the real estate agents and an agent can login to MLS to list or find homes for clients. However it was restricted to the online brokers since most of the online brokers are also “discount brokers” and charge much lower fees than the existing commission rate. Now it has changed, as explained on Techcrunch.com.
Personally I think this is a good thing for the industry. In today’s world, it is just not a sustainable business model to compete by withholding information and hoping the customer has no other choice but stick to the service. The real estate market will eventually recover, and what comes along are the changes happening in the service provided by the real estate agent. Redfin is the pioneer, and there will certainly be more.
Updated:
Here is the official announcement from Department of Justice.