There are plenty of numbers between one and 500, but only one matters to Canopy Multiple Listing Service CEO Anne Marie DeCatsye: 25.
Anna DeCatsye
“I do think there should be more consolidation, both on the MLS side and the association side,” she told the Inman Connect New York crowd. “There shouldn’t be 500 MLSs. There definitely shouldn’t be one, though. I don’t agree with just one. But I do think that there should be maybe 25 MLSs in the country.”
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Although DeCatsye’s vision would effectively eliminate local MLSs and associations, she said it would benefit brokerages and consumers by delivering a more efficient MLS system. The CEO said Canopy has acquired 12 smaller MLSs over the years, ballooning Canopy’s subscriber base to roughly 23,000 agents in North and South Carolina.
“There needs to be consolidation of Realtor associations as well,” she said. “And any smaller Realtor association or even larger ones that are using the MLS as a value proposition on the association side have it wrong. The association is not a benefit of the MLS. MLS should not be a benefit of the association. The association has its own.”
“I do think right now the brokers are kind of talking out of both sides of their mouths because the brokers need to step up and demand consolidation and not kowtow to their agents who want to stay part of the smaller associations,” she added.
DeCatsye’s Connect session took place the same day that Compass CEO Robert Reffkin also appeared on stage at Connect and argued in favor of a national MLS.
Damian Eales
DeCatsye recently collaborated with Realtor.com on its release of Realtor.com+, a collaborative home search experience for agents and their buying clients. The portal’s CEO, Damian Eales, said the experience underscored the value of MLSs as industry players push to replace the current system, either by eliminating it or consolidating it into a single national entity.
“I find that quite extraordinary because to me, coming from another country where there is no MLS, where brokers and listing agents and sellers have to pay to be advertised, it is free in this country. Of course, the ecosystem can be improved,” he said, also from the Connect stage on Tuesday. “But to diminish the ultimate value of this great cooperative, this American system of real estate, is absurd as far as I’m concerned.”
“And the fragmentation that can exist if people get what they wish for is a real problem,” he added. “So we chose to lean into the MLS rather than argue with the MLS, rather than threaten, sue, litigate the MLS.”
Eales said Realtor.com+ is an example of what a synergetic relationship between MLSs and portals could look like, biting back against the idea that portals are leeching off the industry. The MLS has the data, the CEO said, but has struggled to create an engaging consumer experience, which is where portals shine.
“The reality is — and we’ve done the research — that the majority of those listings get reentered by the consumer back into a portal,” he said. “Why? The reason consumers do that is because the portals offer a better experience. It’s because we invest hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars into our brands and into our user experience.”
According to Realtor.com’s figures, real estate professionals essentially pay “five cents to the dollar for free advertising for the entire industry,” he said. “The MLSs have enabled that, and that is a very good deal if you compare that to other countries.”
James Dwiggins
Flaws aside, NextHome CEO James Dwiggins — who appeared on stage with Eales and DeCatsye — said the MLS system is still needed; otherwise, the industry risks a scenario in which a few companies control the lion’s share of listings and hold them in private listing networks.
“I think the entire audience needs to realize what game is about to be played here. You have a conglomerate that, depending on where they are, has in some cases 60 percent of market share. I think the idea of private listings will go much farther than just the brand Compass,” he said. “They’ll figure out a way to use that market share. And here’s the part that everyone needs to realize: The other large companies aren’t going to settle on the sidelines.”
Dwiggins said Keller Williams, eXp Realty, REMAX and Berkshire Hathaway could be at the center of the next major merger, with any two of those combined companies having a market share that rivals or eclipses Compass International Holdings. The CEO pointed to the airline industry as an example of what real estate could look like, echoing an insight from an earlier session featuring eXp CEO Leo Pareja.
“And so you’re looking at United, Delta and American Airlines and the same thing in this business,” he said. “And then all the rules and the politics and all the things that we have, they won’t give a shit.”
“The whole point of the MLS is so that we don’t go back to the way it was 40 years ago, where you didn’t know what the hell was for sale,” he added. “I think we need to bend MLS rules to a point. I mean MLS rules are there for a reason. Fines are there for a reason. Not to make money, but it’s to improve data integrity. And I’m not sure that anybody knows how to do data integrity better than the MLS.”
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