I’m not sure how new this site is, I just ran across it in my Twitter feed this morning. It looks like Art Carter and his team at CRMLS are starting to ramp up the California Statewide MLS initiative again. The new site, dubbed, ItsMyBusiness.me leverages a lot of videos and their twitter banner is a hoot.
The first attempt at a California statewide MLS , calREDD, was a disaster. CalREDD was full of C.A.R.’s hubris, arrogance, and most of all, incompetence at running an MLS (at any size.) But Art seems to be taking a more nuanced and pragmatic approach. Plus Art’s already proven he can be successful running the largest MLS in the country, CRMLS. Here’s one of the videos from the site titled, “Why This Campaign?”
Message from Art Carter from August Partners on Vimeo.
Case in point is at 1:55 of this video, where Art states…
“I think there are some compelling reasons why the 50 or some odd MLSs in the state of California should come together as one, but if that doesn’t occur, the data needs to come together as one.”
Sounds like a reasonable person, not at all crazy.
I gotta say this is a pretty ballsy move by Art. There’s a lot of baggage left over from calREDD, and lets face it, the odds of putting together a statewide MLS in California is pretty slim. But, this type of thinking represents a change in attitudes in many MLS executives. These kind of MLS execs are not afraid of asking the “whys”, not afraid to mess with the status quo, almost looking for a big fight/challenge.
I know a lot of MLS providers will be looking at what happens in California with great interest, and so will a lot of vendors.
Maybe Art Carter can come to NJ to practice, we only have 9 MLS.