Inman Connect
Four months after Zillow’s acquisition of ShowingTime sparked an intense debate among real estate agents, three major multiple listing services (MLSs) have joined forces to create what they describe as a “Rosetta Stone” for showing technologies.
The participating MLSs include Mid-Atlantic-based Bright MLS, California Regional MLS (CRMLS), and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) which collectively serve well over 200,000 real estate professionals. According to a statement, the MLSs are “strategizing to create standards to support choice in showings.” They also want to “define a set of guidelines to simplify the real-time exchange of information between showing services, MLSs, brokerages, and other data consumers,” the statement adds.
Inman Connect
A federal court has permanently tossed an antitrust lawsuit filed by a former pocket listing service against the National Association of Realtors and three of the largest multiple listing services in the country, finding that the plaintiff’s arguments are so flawed that the case cannot be saved.
In May 2020, The PLS, formerly a private listing network for real estate agents, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against NAR and the California Regional MLS (CRMLS), Bright MLS and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) over a policy designed to curb pocket listings.
The suit alleged the defendants had violated the federal Sherman Antitrust Act and California’s Cartwright Act for adopting the Clear Cooperation Policy, also known as MLS Policy Statement 8.0, which requires listing brokers to submit a listing to their MLS within one business day of marketing a property to the public.