Organizations around the country are navigating the question of “what’s next?” in the real estate industry. We’ve been exploring that by reflecting on the past and examining where we stand today. One of the questions we frequently ask is:
What would you say if someone asked, “What is an MLS?”
I’m struck by how difficult this question is to answer—even for myself, someone who writes a blog and co-produces a couple of podcasts in the industry. Part of the challenge, I think, stems from the recent settlement changes; we’re still working to define and understand the evolving role of the MLS.
When I checked Wikipedia, I found the first sentence to be completely wrong:
“A multiple listing service (MLS, also multiple listing system or multiple listings service) is an organization with a suite of services that real estate brokers use to establish contractual offers of cooperation and compensation (among brokers) and accumulate and disseminate information to enable appraisals.”
“Cooperation and compensation”? Uh, yeah, no.
Sam DeBord addressed this very question in his excellent three-part series, “What Every Real Estate Professional Needs to Know About the MLS,” on Real Estate News. If you haven’t read it (or if it’s been a while), I highly recommend revisiting it. Additionally, CMLS, in partnership with 1000watt, has done a phenomenal job with their “Making the Market Work” campaign. Both are worth a read—or re-read—because they provide insightful perspectives on the MLS.
But what I’m really looking for here is something shorter—a true elevator pitch. As a copywriter, I want something punchy, something that people can visualize and “get” immediately.
Here’s my first attempt (and I hope to refine this further):
“The MLS is a professional network of real estate brokers, agents, and other professionals that help people buy and sell homes.”
Now it’s your turn—share your version in the comments!
The MLS is an information sharing service used by real estate brokers, agents, and other professionals who help people buy and sell homes.
“A Multiple Listing Service – or an MLS – is a shared marketplace of real estate listing information and related data with rules and procedures set by its data providers.”
That’s the elevator pitch, but if my temporarily trapped companion was traveling more than two floors with me, I’d tack on:
“It is not necessarily limited by geography, nor is it a website, database or REALTOR® association, but it could be. It provides an agreed-upon set of standards that benefits consumers and competition by providing broad, transparent access to real estate opportunities.”
The full definition in Wikipedia should probably be:
A Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is a cooperative organization that creates a shared marketplace of real estate listing information and related data according to a mutually defined set of rules and procedures. It is not limited by geographic borders, nor is it a website, database or REALTOR® association, though it may have one or all of these components. Its primary role is to ensure compliance with cooperative rules in a pro-consumer, pro-competitive manner that provide broad access to real estate opportunities.
Yes, I left out the words “broker” and “agent” on purpose, because that shiz be changing before our eyes. No, that does not mean I am anti-agent or anti-broker. No torches, please. If anything, I’d like the definition to protect agents and brokers, who have been unnecessarily bopped on their heads enough over the past year. I also left out “sales” because I think that long-term and even temporary rentals have a place in the MLS, too.
Going deeper, why not parking stalls, storage units, garages, etc. Why should companies like Airbnb and SpotHero have all the fun? There are many aspects to a real estate marketplace!
Ever since 1000Watt came up with “MLS Makes The Market Work” for CMLS, I’ve used it repeatedly in my own writing, speeches, and conversations. It works. If you’re with people who aren’t in the industry, just saying ,”MLS makes the real estate market work” might be needed, but it’s the same point. If I’m with friends and family, I’ll usually add something like, “If you look at listings online, those come from MLSs.” For this reason, I really want to revive CMLSs Source MLS campaign and get that badge on every MLS listing on every consumer portal so we can all say, see, that’s what MLS does!
An MLS is real estate professionals’ organized marketplace of mutually agreed upon rules for sharing property information and carrying out transactions for clients.
Such a fun and evolving challenge! Like Michael, I tend to use the “MLS makes the market work” a lot and I LOVE the idea of bringing back SourceMLS as a way to help consumers really “see” it. I like Sam’s definition but I would be tempted to remove “real estate professionals” as the sole beneficiary.
An MLS is a collaborative platform to post, search, and share property data with unmatched accuracy and transparency. It ensures all parties have the most reliable and up-to-date information, connecting buyers and sellers efficiently and fairly through experienced professionals, while streamlining the entire home-buying process.
Since the audience for this pitch is likely more familiar with social media than organized real estate, I used “post” instead of “list”.
You probably need to identify the intended audience. If it’s just describing the outcomes of MLS to consumers, that’s a very different elevator pitch than describing the critical components to professionals who might operate within an MLS market.
An MLS is a broker cooperative where the listing brokers share exclusive listings to help create an efficient marketplace so buyer clients can easily find properties and sellers can easily find buyers. The cooperative requires a ruleset to ensure a cohesive marketplace created by the pooling of the otherwise fractionalized world of potential sellers and buyers. It also ensures that the interests of all competitors and their clients are placed before the interests of individual agents or companies. In the absence of the ruleset, any aggregation of property information is an advertising platform with incomplete information.
The more efficient marketplace created by the MLS provides greater efficiencies and opportunities for competition by many brokerage business models. It encourages the growth of many other competitive real estate-related businesses. A side effect of the broker cooperative is the enrichment of public record datasets through the US and Canada via the addition of information and various media by the agents affiliated with the listing brokers, which in turn provides current data for others to use.
What they said :)!
An MLS is a network of real estate professionals that agree to cooperate together to share all the details and access to properties that are for sale or rent, resulting in a fair and equitable marketplace for homes.