The MLS Is Broken. Here’s What Should Replace It.

The real estate industry is openly debating what the MLS is supposed to be, and I think that debate is much more important than most people realize.
I recently watched an Industry Relations discussion with Rob Hahn and Greg Robertson where they spent a significant part of the conversation trying to answer exactly that question. Is the MLS fundamentally a cooperative? Is it becoming a technology platform? Is its real value the data? Is it the distribution of that data? Or is the MLS supposed to remain the central clearinghouse where everybody puts their listings?
Those are legitimate questions. But I think they’re starting in the wrong place.
Instead of asking what the MLS needs to become, start with the house. What do we actually need in order to sell it?
We need inventory in one place so buyers can find it. We need accurate information. We need great photography and video so buyers can experience the property before they ever walk through the door. We need professionals when the seller wants professional help, and we need a direct way for the people actually involved in buying and selling the property to communicate.
That’s really not very complicated.
But look at everything that has grown around that basic transaction. MLS organizations, brokerages, portals, lead-generation companies, referral businesses, data companies, advertising businesses and technology vendors all surrounding the same property.
Some of those businesses provide real value. I’m not suggesting otherwise.
But every layer should have to answer a simple question. Why do you need to be between the property and the people trying to buy and sell it?
That brings us to another very important part of the discussion I watched. They talked about the value of MLS data and eventually got to a fundamental point: the MLS doesn’t actually create the listing data. It aggregates information supplied by brokers and agents.
I think even that starts one step too late.
The broker didn’t create the inventory.
The seller did.
The seller owns the house. The seller made the decision to sell it. Everything else starts with that decision.
Without the seller there is no listing. There is no MLS data. There is no Zillow listing. There is no portal traffic. There is no lead. There is no referral. There is no commission. There is no transaction.
So when the industry argues about who owns the data, who gets to distribute it, who gets paid for contributing it, and who gets to control access to it, I think we need to remember who created the value everyone is fighting over.
The seller created the inventory.
Now, there is something the MLS does extremely well, and I don’t think Rethink Open House should pretend otherwise.
It brings inventory together.
That is tremendously valuable.
Buyers know where to look. Agents know where to look. The more inventory that goes into one marketplace, the more useful that marketplace becomes. That’s the network effect, and it’s one of the biggest reasons the MLS is so powerful today.
But there is an important distinction.
Concentrated inventory is valuable.
That doesn’t automatically mean the entire system that has grown around concentrated inventory is necessary.
Those are two different things.
The industry seems to keep asking how we preserve the MLS while changing what the MLS does.
Rethink Open House asks a different question.
How do we preserve the benefit of having inventory together while giving more control back to the people who actually created and are selling that inventory?
That’s the model.
Put the property in one place where buyers can find it. Give them enough photography, video and information to make the first showing happen online. Let the seller decide how much professional assistance they want. Let professionals keep their branding and their relationships with their clients. Let buyers communicate with the people actually involved in selling the property.
And remove layers that don’t provide enough value to justify being there.
That doesn’t mean every seller should abandon the MLS tomorrow.
The MLS currently has vastly more inventory. That’s reality.
But why does it have the inventory?
Because agents and sellers keep giving it the inventory.
Inventory creates the marketplace.
If inventory begins moving somewhere else, buyers will follow it. If buyers follow the inventory, professionals will follow the buyers.
That’s why I don’t think the future of real estate has to be decided by figuring out what the MLS wants to become.
We can build something better.
That’s what Rethink Open House is designed to do.
One place for the inventory, but direct control for the people who created it.
Give sellers choices. Give professionals control of their brands and leads. Give buyers a better way to experience properties before they schedule physical showings.
And keep the objective simple.
Sell the house.
The industry can continue debating what the MLS should become.
Rethink Open House already has an answer.
The MLS has the inventory.
Rethink Open House has the better model.

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