MLS 5.0

I first heard about the MLS 5.0 publication through an e-mail at work. It looked interesting, and as I’ve been doing with so many things lately, I printed it out and took it home to read.

First I would like to say that this is an incredibly intimidating e-book verses the ones I’ve found online lately that deal with marketing and customer service, such as Humanize It, by Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon. You know, just for what it’s worth.

So I’ve skipped over it when deciding what to read next. And when some of my regular blogs post about it, I don’t feel so bad about not getting around to it.

And now it’s been summed up for me by Tom and Greg from The Real Estate Bloggers and the Bloodhound Blog, respectively, and now I’ve got motivation to really give it a good read.

The MLS 5.0 Manifesto says:

The MLS of the future will bring a marketing service and benefit to the industry by being the single point of entry for listing data and then, based upon the election of the broker, distribute that information to web portals, newspapers, even radio and television, handheld devices and applications.

But the Bloodhound blog translates it:

It says that Klein’s idealized “MLS of the Future” will be a national monopoly system controlled by real estate brokers and the NAR — to the immediate and permanent detriment of independent MLS systems and vendors, Web 2.0 listings aggregators and — most especially — individual real estate agents.

Perhaps I don’t understand NAR as well as a REALTOR® might. Why is the assumption that NAR would abuse the control - or is it just that any monopoly is bad? I don’t know, and I admit, I’m confused. I’m going to have to read the original e-book, and research this some more.

I do wonder above anything else, though, what does our local Association of REALTORS® think about this?

Filed under Business, real estate |