When California MLSs don’t share data with each other, it harms agents, brokers and consumers. Agents can’t get a full picture of what’s on the market in their service areas, pay for multiple MLS subscriptions and must learn different MLS platforms to perform simple tasks — like pulling comps. MLSs that don’t share data with each other are an expensive headache for agents.

Brokers pay dearly to manage multiple data streams from different MLSs, as well as multiple subscription fees which can be in the thousands of dollars. Administrative overhead skyrockets as brokers try to deal with enormous volumes of data to populate their websites and marketing materials. MLSs that don’t share data with each other waste time and money by duplicating administrative and technical overhead.   Consumers don’t have any artificial boundaries, and go wherever they want to access real estate listings. They bypass brokers and agents on a daily basis by visiting third party portals, where they can often get more information for free from publicly available sources than agents and brokers can.

Even if you work in a single neighborhood or small city, your clients could come from anywhere — and most likely will. And what if they move? You can’t control where they want to look for a new home. It’s in your interest as a real estate professional to have universal access to every listing in California through a single point of access, your local MLS.

When MLSs don’t share data, you don’t have a complete view of the market in your MLS.   If your clients move, you want to be able to help. Accurate data is at the core of the real estate business. Without data sharing, agents and brokers are limited in their ability to search and list property beyond their association or MLS without paying additional fees and learning the rules and regulations of additional MLSs.

There are 55 MLSs and 116 local real estate associations in the state of California. Collectively, these MLSs and associations facilitate the annual sales of more than 400,000 real estate listings in California worth close to $170 billion.

Today, 75 associations and MLSs share data through a variety of data sharing agreements and data feeds. Since not all sharing agreements are created equal, even those that share may not allow those who are not direct subscribers to see a complete listing profile. That means another 41 associations and MLSs do not share data.