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Article Date: 10/16/2007
Directors for the California Association of Realtors on Saturday approved the creation of a statewide real estate data-sharing effort that local Realtor associations could choose to use as a statewide multiple listing system.
<p>It gives us the opportunity to get all of the data throughout the state into one database and then allow associations and MLSs to decide whether they want to use it as their MLS database or use it just as the aggregation portion," said Gary Thomas, a real estate broker who is a former president of the state Realtor group and leads an MLS Working Group that was appointed in 2005 to study MLS issues and develop a vision for the state's system of MLSs.</p>
<p>The MLS Working Group had proposed <a target="_blank" href="http://www.car.org/library/media/papers/pdf/10-01-07MLSImplementationplan-final.pdf">three options for consideration</a> by the association's board, including an option to pursue a database that preserves the existing network of MLSs in the state and an option to create a unified MLS that serves Realtors throughout the state. The selected option has been dubbed a hybrid of these other two options.</p>
<p>Ed Krafchow, president of Prudential California Realty and a longtime advocate of MLS consolidation in the real estate industry, said he worries that the board's decision will not go far enough to truly streamline the MLS industry in the state.</p>
<p>There are about 70 MLSs throughout California, most of them operated by local Realtor associations, and Krafchow said he believes that there is an "overcapacity" of local Realtor groups and local MLSs in the state.</p>
<p>Some associations have become dependent on the fees that their MLSs charge to subscribers, Krafchow said, "and that needs to cease. I'm concerned about the continuation or even development of over-capacity on the associations' side. I want MLSs to be supportive of consolidation ... not just data-sharing because I don't think that's the answer."</p>
<p>Krafchow has supported a Northern California MLS consolidation effort, the Northern California Real Estate Exchange, or <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncrex.com/">NCREX</a>, that has already joined two MLSs.</p>
<p>The motion that California Association of Realtors directors approved on Saturday provides that a mutual benefit nonprofit corporation will be established to oversee the development and operations of the database and statewide MLS system.</p>
<p>Also, directors voted to establish: an MLS rules working group ... to recommend statewide rules to be used in either model; an MLS statewide governance working group to recommend a specific governance structure; an MLS standards subcommittee group to ... recommend data standards; and an association executives working group to recommend the most efficient and member-oriented approach on which services should be retained at the local level, Thomas reported.</p>
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