The Rhode Island State-Wide Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is expanding access to non-realtors in the state, beginning on May 1.
RIS Media reported the MLS, a for-profit subsidiary of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors (RIAR), announced the expansion in conjunction with its first fee increase in nearly 20 years. The MLS has more than 7,000 subscribers and RIAR CEO Philip Tedesco noted the new fee structure will remain the same if subscribers are licensees or realtors.
“We discussed separate levels of access, which could then potentially support separate fees, but we decided to give the same level of access because State-Wide MLS is a cooperative,” said Tedesco. “It’s not a listing platform, so it relies on trust and transparency within the marketplace. After a long discussion, we decided that the collective consumers of MLS benefit from the expanded access and increased information for its entire user base. So we didn’t really want to play games – it’s all about transparency in the transaction, and we thought separate levels of access might question that.”
Tedesco added that RIAR members have been bombarding his office with questions on how this will work.
“If it’s a licensee, it still needs to be the entire office,” he said. “If the broker’s going to affiliate with the MLS, it’s not just one individual within and then everybody putting their listings through that one subscription. It will be them having the ability to sign up for the MLS, just with no realtor association membership in a mutually exclusive separate decision. We’re just not tying the two in any way, either in pricing or in access anymore.”
Tedesco stated he only mentioned the MLS access expansion to the National Association of Realtors in “passing” and said he’d be “curious to see if it turns into a topic of discussion” when he attends an upcoming meeting with the organization’s leaders.
At some point in time, Brokerages need to come together and stop sharing information with FOR PROFIT organizations. What a big mistake that was to sell our information to corporations that sell leads back to us. Yes, the argument can be made this is the best advertisement freeway for the sellers, but it surely wasn’t a good move for REALTORS and brokerages.
They’ve got the Zillow attitude in their brain. They’re doing nothing to help us.
You guys are trying to put us out of business. Doing everything in your power to work against agents. This is a slippery slope I would reject this.