“Agents have never enjoyed typing notes into a CRM. We ask people who sell with their voice to sit down and type, then blame them for not doing it. Hey, Lucy does the data entry for you. An agent walks up to a listing, says a few words, and the work gets done instantly.”
— Audie Chamberlain, VP of Strategic Growth and Communications, Rechat
I’m still a bit hesitant to say voice entry will be the primary way we interact with computers, I’ve written about it before. But, there is a lot of evidence that it will be. And lots of companies are betting on this. And the industry has been trying to solve “agents won’t update the CRM” for as long as I’ve been in it. Rechat’s answer is to stop asking them to type at all.
The campaign itself is the interesting part. Spots run 15 to 60 seconds, shot handheld in natural light, no narration, no feature lists. Just agents at listings, in cars, at open houses, talking to Lucy while the work gets done. That’s a confident way to sell software. Although I have no idea the quality of the CMA (or other output) it creates. I imagine them to be designed with the assumption they will be consumed on a mobile device.
Unlike some legacy apps Lucy isn’t some ChatGPT-era rebrand or bolt on. Shayan Hamidi has been building toward this since before “AI assistant” was a required slide in every pitch deck.
First Real’sHeyLeo, now Hey Lucy. Every platform’s AI is on a first-name basis with us now.
The ads run through the end of summer on Meta, Google, and national sites. If the demos hold up in the field, great. If not… Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.
“The use and misuse by machine based learning platforms is something MLSs have no exposure to.” — Art Carter, CEO of REcore”
For two years the listing data fight has been about distribution. Who gets the feed, who gets cut off, whose listings show up on Zillow. All of it about where the data goes.
Project NexusRE is about what happens after it gets there. Your data leaves the building, disappears into a dozen LLMs, and the MLS has zero visibility into which ones, under what terms, or for whose benefit. NexusRE is pitched as the layer in between. Permissions, usage metering, compliance screening, applied once and enforced everywhere. A toll booth and a security camera for MLS data in the AI era.
I know, “in active development”, is code for “there is still a lot of work to be done”. But I’ve seen some of the tech and excited to see how testing goes this summer.
But here’s the part I’m here for. NorthstarMLS holds the patent. REcore, the company commercializing it, and where I serve as a board member, “can only be owned by brokers and MLS investment.” In a year when Stone Point owns the brokerage, the MLS software, and the transaction stack all at once, that’s not a small detail. This piece can’t get flipped to private equity later.
Everybody else is arguing about who owns the listing. NorthstarMLS and REcore are the first to ask who’s watching what the machines do with it.
“MRED is announcing nationwide expansion of its MLS service, including the Private Listing Network (PLN), to any licensed agent.”
“Compass International Holdings is also committed to subsidizing some of the cost of MRED access to the first 100,000 Compass International Holdings agents to join MRED as full members.”
Holy shit! A regional MLS in Lisle, Illinois just announced it’s going national. And the largest brokerage in the country is picking up the tab.
Let me back up.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Reffkin’s proposal for a brokerage-owned national MLS. At the time, sources told me he’d pitched the idea on stage of Brian Donnellan CEO, of Bright MLS leading the charge. Apparently that didn’t go anywhere. So Robert went shopping and found a willing partner in Rebecca Jensen, who has been running MRED for years and has never been shy about doing things differently.
I once compared Rebecca to Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones on Industry Relations. She’s been building dragons for a decade with the Private Listing Network, quietly, while the rest of the MLS world debated whether private listings should even exist. Now she’s burning the map.
This is MLS consolidation, but not the kind we’ve been tracking. Not two neighboring MLSs merging to save on overhead. This is a single MLS going national overnight, powered by Compass’s inventory and Compass’s checkbook. MRED goes from 250,000 listings annually to… what exactly? Compass alone does over a million transactions a year post-Anywhere. That’s not expansion. That’s a whole new animal.
Now let’s talk about what they’re actually offering. MRED says agents can “manage price history, days on market, and automated valuation models.” That sounds an awful lot like suppressing information that buyers would find useful. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m not a fan of less information in real estate. Full stop. But here’s my real question: is MRED still capturing actual DOM and price changes on the backend, just not displaying them publicly? Because if the data exists internally but gets hidden from consumers, that’s one conversation. If it’s not being tracked at all, that’s a much scarier one. And will other MRED brokers like their MLS getting so cozy with Compass?
Then there’s this line: “MRED also commits to protect and safeguard agents who participate in its PLN from being banned or penalized by third party portals and IDX feed recipients.”
Bold. Really bold. But how? Zillow has already shown it will punish listings that get marketed outside their ecosystem before hitting the MLS. What exactly is MRED going to do when Zillow bans a Compass agent’s listings? Send a strongly worded letter? File a lawsuit? Kick them out of the MLS? I’d genuinely love to know, because that promise is either the most important sentence in this press release or the emptiest.
Look, I see what’s happening here. Reffkin has been playing chess all year. The Redfin syndication deal. The war on Clear Cooperation. The national MLS pitch. And now he’s found an MLS CEO willing to go full Dracarys with him. Rebecca gets to go from running a midwestern MLS to running a national platform. Robert gets an MLS partner who won’t fine his agents for pocket listings and will actually fight the portals on his behalf. It’s a hell of a deal for both of them.
Whether it’s a good deal for everyone else… that’s the part I’m still working out.
“The Southeast MLS Alliance was built on the idea that stronger regional connections lead to better outcomes for everyone in the transaction — agents, brokers, and consumers. Adding realMLS and the Northeast Florida market to that network is a natural fit. Each addition to the Alliance expands the value of membership for every MLS and every professional already part of it.” — Joseph Cullom, CEO, CHS Regional MLS
The Southeast MLS Alliance — CHS Regional MLS (Charleston), Realtracs (Nashville), Canopy MLS (Charlotte), and Georgia MLS — just added realMLS out of Jacksonville. That brings the network to 118,000+ subscribers stretched across five major southeastern markets.
Look at the geography for a second. Nashville. Charlotte. Atlanta. Charleston. And now Jacksonville. That’s an arc from Tennessee to the Florida coast with very few gaps in between. If you’re an agent working a relocation referral from Charlotte to Jacksonville, or Charleston to Nashville, you’re now looking at the same data inside your MLS platform. No second login. No calling a friend of a friend.
This is the quiet version of MLS consolidation. Nobody merged. Nobody got acquired. Nobody’s brand disappeared. They just… connected the pipes. Shared active and historical listing data. And every time another MLS joins, the value of being in the network goes up for everybody already there. It’s the network effect working exactly as designed.
Nicole Jensen at realMLS called it “eliminating barriers,” which is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in press releases. But in this case, it’s actually what’s happening. Agents in Jacksonville can now see listing data across five southeastern markets without leaving their platform.
With the MLS count now below 500 and dropping, alliances like this are one answer to the consolidation question. You don’t have to merge to get the benefits of scale. You just have to be willing to share.
My hat’s off to Cullom and the Alliance for building something that keeps growing, as I’m fond of saying the best marketing is having a good product.
“We are creating a modern governance model that supports future growth and lowers risk while staying true to our market and the needs of those who everyday make the market work for consumers.” — Matt Consalvo, CEO”
Big move. ARMLS just approved a shift to a fully independent board of directors. No brokers. No agents. No one licensed to do real estate in Arizona gets a board seat. Instead, they’re building a smaller board of outside professionals — finance, legal, strategy types — and standing up a separate advisory council so brokers and agents still have a voice on product and service decisions.
Let me say that differently: the people running ARMLS will no longer be the same people competing in the market ARMLS serves.
That’s a huge deal, and honestly, it’s overdue. Most MLS boards are still packed with local brokers who have their own businesses to protect. Finding members that can take off their broker hat is extremely difficult. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just human nature. But it makes it really hard to make tough calls on data policy, tech investment, or anything that might help the market but hurt your brokerage. ARMLS is essentially saying: we need a boardroom where nobody’s worried about their own listings. Think about that for a bit.
Board applications open in April, with a target transition of August 2026.
The advisory council is the part to watch. If it has real teeth, actual influence on product direction, and market-level decisions, this could become the governance model other MLSs start copying. If it’s a rubber-stamp listening tour… well, I’ve seen that movie before.
My hat’s off to Consalvo and the ARMLS board for having the courage to vote themselves out of the room. That doesn’t happen often.
“We were excited to see how many of our Associations jumped at the opportunity to offer RealReports, so it felt like it was due time to offer it to every real estate professional we represent,” said CRMLS CEO Art Carter. “Agents and brokers are constantly adapting to being even more efficient and more knowledgeable in an ever-increasingly demanding market. RealReports helps with the heavy lift of going through documents, pulling the most vital and valuable information, and making it easy to present to clients.”
I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for PDFs and online reports.
“Chris has a long history of helping MLSs strategically evolve their forms, policies, and legal strategies” said Mitch Skinner, co-owner and managing member of Larson Skinner. “And Valentina brings the grounded, business-first perspective of someone who has built products and managed risk from inside a brokerage.”
“Together, they add even more depth to how we can support MLSs, associations, and brokerages as the industry navigates rapid change” added Camille Beshara, Larson Skinner co-owner and member.”
Congrats to Chris and Valentina and the Larson Skinner team!
“The campaign for technology company seats was particularly competitive this year,” said Rebecca Jensen, RESO Board Chair and President/CEO of Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED). “Innovation is at the core of creating data standards, and we are thrilled by our tech community’s willingness to lead the organization forward with the MLS, association and brokerage industries.”
Congrats to everyone. For the full list click here.
“We are pleased to welcome the Calaveras County Association of REALTORS® and its members to MetroList,” said MetroList President and CEO Dave Howe. “By bringing more associations together on a single MLS platform, we are creating a regional MLS that enables real estate professionals to better serve their clients and supports consumers who are increasingly searching for properties across county and regional boundaries.”
Quick story, long time ago I was with some friends on a river rafting trip. We stopped by Angels Camp. We had no idea at the time but there was a rodeo and fair going on with a frog jumping contest. I just remember the excitement of just happening upon this and all of us heading to the fair and having a great time that day.
Anyway, congrats to MetroList and CCAR. MetroList is already the largest MLS in the state of California and this partnership adds a few more giant sequoias to the mix.
“REcore, the leading provider of MLS SaaS solutions and data licensing, today announced a surge in adoption across its product ecosystem. MARIS (Mid-America Regional Information Systems) MLS has selected the REcore dashboard, a customizable MLS and association workspace, to power a unified and user-friendly experience for its members. At the same time, Navigator by Lundy, a member engagement and discovery tool distributed by REcore, has been adopted by Heartland MLS, Greater Alabama MLS, and the Minneapolis Area REALTORS®.“
