Looks like my intel was correct. MRIS and TREND MLS are indeed consolidating. But I think there is much more to this than it seems. In a email Tom Phillips of TREND MLS stated:
“So I wanted to personally share with you that TREND and MRIS are announcing our commitment to consolidate, in order to fulfill a joint vision for the next era of MLS. This consolidation will go beyond a simple joining of forces. It will create an entirely new organization that welcomes other MLSs, associations and brokers who share this vision, to invite them to participate in the formation of the new organization.”
Along with this announcement was a link to a PDF what they call, “The MLS: Evolved”
Well written and concise. I especially like their mission statement, which was also in Tom’s email;
“To preserve compensation and cooperation, promote the expansion of an orderly and efficient marketplace, and provide participating brokerage firms greater control of and access to their listing content.”
So its pretty obvious they are going for a more “broker friendly” MLS. They think data share agreements are in the past. The report also talks about tiered level of MLS access with a base option and other options to add more products/services.
After I read the document a thought occurred to me, why stop at MRIS and TREND? The model they are creating and with the technology now (which was one of their points) why couldn’t this be the start of a national consolidation of MLS providers around the country? Both MLS providers are already in multiple states, so who says how many other states they could go to? 10, 20, 50?
The key here I think is that nobody has laid out a vision/plan. While admittedly this is more a beginning framework than a plan, they have taken a pretty clear leadership position.
So I think the MLS community should watch this consolidation with great interest. If David, Tom and the other stakeholders can execute this consolidation, and get broker buy-in, you might be seeing something entirely new, and possibly the future.
