That trade has broken down, because some firms now take data out without putting listings in, and others want to hold listings back while staying in. In the summer of 2026, three documents from three organizations proposed three different repairs. Here they are, in plain language.
The proposals now competing disagree about almost everything except the starting point. The listing database is valuable because working brokers build it, one listing and one represented client at a time. Every proposal on the table is, at bottom, an argument about how to honor that fact
The database your neighborhood built is worth understanding, because everything about how homes are bought and sold runs through it.
One habit will keep you oriented across all of these. For any feed, ask two questions. What may the recipient do with what arrives, that is the license. And is the output a listing being shown, or something new being made?
THE LANGUAGE OF DATA SERIES | PART 7 OF 7 How Should Data Be Priced? Member uses at cost, commercial uses at market, and the
…because the database is built cooperatively, someone has to decide who gets to use it, for what purposes, and at what price. For most of a century that question answered itself, because everyone at the table was a working broker making the same trade. That is no longer true, and the argument about what to do about it is now the biggest fight in the industry.
This is one of the FTC’s most significant recent actions involving online real estate and rental marketplaces. The agency’s position is that paying a competitor to exit a market can violate antitrust law when it reduces competition and consumer choice — the “pay to exit” theory.
UNDER ALL IS THE DATA | PART 7 OF 8 The Tempting Test Why “half your revenue from closed transactions” fails three ways, and the
The myths, mis-facts and muddling of the latest mandates from the NAR/DOJ Lawsuits continues. So how does the leading “train the trainers” expert help the trainers work with agents and associations to clarify, confirm and connect?
In a market where every advantage counts, looking beyond the MLS with AI isn’t just smart—it’s essential for staying ahead.
