The CEO of the National Association of REALTORS, Dale Stinton wrote a 1,800 blog post entitled, “TO “B TO B” OR NOT TO “B”” about the N.A.R.’s commitment and partnerships with the Brokerage, MLS and Vendor community. It’s worth a read, and a re-read. I found it pretty fascinating and gave me ton of insight to the N.A.R.’s thought process.

The first part of his post summarizes the N.A.R.’s success stories, starting with the formation of RETS, CIVIX, domain names, the recent hire of a MLS advocate, Caitlin McCrory, and its expanding relationship with CMLS. Later in the post he did seem to acknowledge some of friction with RPR, Upstream and the MLS and Vendor community stating..

“Whether you’ve come to see it this way or not, RPR too was hoped to be an important (B to B) example of cooperation between NAR, RPR, and the MLS and Vendor communities.”

and I thought this section was encouraging.

“One of the first things Alex Lange did after coming on board with Upstream was to create an MLS Advisory Council to bounce ideas off of and create a channel of communication. He did not cherry pick our ‘friends’ so to speak, rather he engaged a cross section of all types of MLS’s and MLS executives. It is out of that group’s advice and counsel and the Upstream Board’s desire to bring everyone back together, that the second option (MLS input first) was born and which has been very well received.”

Furthermore he looks to walk back, or at least further explain his widely reported statement about the MLS/Vendor community being a “cartel”.

Some of you may have missed this signal or dismissed it as yet another attempt on NAR’s part to interfere or intrude itself into space in which it does not belong. Or you may have spent some time commiserating about what was accurately reported as my ‘cartel’ comment. Unfortunately, what was conveniently omitted was what I said right before that, which was:

“THERE ARE SOME FANTASTIC VENDORS AND EVEN MORE FANTASTIC MLS’s OUT THERE THAT DO AN UNBELIEVABLE JOB, THEY ARE NOT THE PROBLEM!”

….. followed by applause from the NAR Board of Directors.

Unfortunately the link to the audio portion of this statement on the blog post isn’t working. But good for him. I think his “cartel” statement was ill conceived and he seems to acknowledge that, or at least in my reading the sentiment is there.

This next section also caught my eye.

“Then, after the Midyear Meetings, I listened to a couple of excellent online interviews; one covering the events at the Midyear meeting and one which occurred shortly thereafter. I can’t say I liked everything they discussed nor do I agree with all of their conclusions, but they were even handed, and generally fair in their observations about the ‘pivot’ to option B and other NAR activities. What’s the saying …. ‘if you can’t take the heat’.”

Could Dale be a podcast fan? I wonder if this podcast or maybe this podcast was on his playlist. : )

And for reasons you’ll see I thought this section was particularly insightful.

” As previously mentioned, CMLS has blossomed as a force for cooperation and ideation. MLS data sharing is happening all over the place. Some MLS vendors are really stepping up with some state-of-the-art products, particularly focusing on MLS front ends. FBS and Cloud MLX are just a couple of examples of high quality vendors pushing the envelope.”

I always knew Dale had great taste in “high quality” front end of choice software!

Here’s the deal. It’s real easy to be cynical about some of the points he’s making. But, maybe, just maybe this can be a turning point. As Dale points out…

“One of the first things Alex Lange did after coming on board with Upstream was to create an MLS Advisory Council to bounce ideas off of and create a channel of communication. He did not cherry pick our ‘friends’ so to speak, rather he engaged a cross section of all types of MLS’s and MLS executives. It is out of that group’s advice and counsel and the Upstream Board’s desire to bring everyone back together, that the second option (MLS input first) was born and which has been very well received. Some have said this is where Upstream should have started to begin with and that its name now belies its mission and brokers original intent. The NAR learning moment was and is to remember to listen more closely to the Brokers and MLS executives.

Emphasis mine.

Maybe this can be a “learning moment” for us all.

Here’s yours truly from a previous blog post.

“We all need to press the reset button, and move forward.”

Yup