In Canada, we have mls.ca, and in the U.S., they have Realtor.com.
For many people starting their home search, this is the place they go to narrow their criteria, or maybe just have a look at what's going on in their market.
As a background, what you see on those sites, along with countless others like the RE/MAX website, are feeds from local real estate boards. In fact, I'm actually a member of two boards - Orangeville and Toronto. Both of whom run completely separate MLS systems. They share data, but it's not very timely.
An MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, is a collection of housing information in a central spot. On a larger scale, like mls.ca, it's an assembly of data from various boards across the country.
Anyhow, I just read today that the entire Northwest Multiple Listing Service (whose jurisdiction is one of the largest U.S. markets, Seattle) is essentially pulling themselves out of the Realtor.com network.
The individual brokers are wondering why they're paying millions on their local sites to compete with themselves on Realtor.com.
Seattle has always been a leader with MLS technology - they were the first ones to incorporate "Broker Reciprocity", where brokers from different companies could share their listings with each other through an MLS feed.
Now that brokers have developed websites, they don't want Realtor.com to take their eyeballs away. Based on the feelings of some Realtors in Canada, a similar scenario is very possible.
So what does this mean?
Brokers are clearly looking at MLS's, competition, and how to use the Internet in a different way. In fact, a significant change in attitudes may be underway.
Could this sink the ship of the mighty and powerful Realtor.com? Will the Canadian boards follow suit? At this point, it's too early to tell.
This is an important development, so stay tuned. This one definitely isn't over.
