Multiple Listing Services band together to share data, resources

A group of five multiple listing services from across the country has teamed up to pool their resources.

MLSs from California, Arizona, Wisconsin, Oregon and Utah unveiled MLS Aligned LLC, which seeks to build new tools for MLS users, Inman reported.

“This is going to fundamentally change how data is moving from Point A to Point B to Point C in some ways,” Chris Carrillo, CEO of Metro MLS in Wisconsin, told Inman.

The company’s first creation is an application programming interface called MLS Aligned API, which lets vendors like third-party listing portals receive real-time listing data from the member MLSs.

Previously, third-party listing sites had to copy each MLS’s whole database one-by-one, and could only get up updates periodically.

Homes.com has already tested using the MLS Aligned API, and will start using data from Metro MLS. The listing website also takes the Real Estate Board of New York’s Residential Listing Service feed.

Carillo said the company had not yet determined how much the service will cost, but told Inman that the fee would be “low.”

“This initiative is intended to be inclusive,” he said. “From a technical requirement, we only need access to your MLS repository. From a cost standpoint, we have yet to formulate what the final costs will be. However, this initiative is not intended to separate the have and the have-nots. ” [Inman] — Rich Bockmann