Realtors’ associations for San Antonio and much of Texas’ Hill Country area plan to merge, joining a national trend of consolidation among Multiple Listing Services and local boards.
Pending approval by board members and the National Association of Realtors, the San Antonio Board of Realtors will form a single association with the Four Rivers Association of Realtors, which covers Caldwell, Comal, Gonzales, Guadalupe and Hays Counties, according to a Sabor press release.
“A lot of our members in both regions were part of both. Real estate doesn’t just happen in association boundaries, so when we come together, a lot of our members are going to benefit from the expanded footprint,” said Sabor Chairman Ed Zapata.
“We still need to talk to our members. If the members see there’s no value in this merger, it’s not going to go through,” Zapata added.
The merger wouldn’t directly affect the San Antonio MLS, known as Lera, which is technically distinct from Sabor, Zapata said.
However, the listings on Frar’s MLS, which Frar shares with other Central Texas associations, would eventually trickle over to Lera, according to Frar President Wes Miller.
“If you want to work effectively in the area, you’ve got to have both MLSs. It’s just not been what’s best for the clients, and that’s not what’s best for the Realtors, and it was just a flaw in the system that was long overdue to be corrected,” Miller said.
The merged organization would have a bigger budget for professional development, statehouse advocacy and other services, according to both Miller and Zapata.
“We’ll be able to improve our education, professional development — all the different ways that we serve our members, we’ll be able to pour gas on that,” Miller said.
Sabor has about 10,000 members, according to its website. Frar has about 1,000, Miller said.
In 2023, Sabor struck a data-sharing agreement with the Houston Association of Realtors that granted HAR subscribers access to San Antonio listings. Sabor reached a similar agreement with Unlock MLS, which serves Austin, the following year.
Luxury agent Easton Smith, who works in San Antonio, Austin and New Braunfels, said he expects the merger to improve listing efficiency, but worries about pushing agents past their geographic competency, a state-required obligation for agents to remain informed on their local markets.
“The one thing that I think is not ideal is that it really opens people up to stepping outside of their geographical competence, just to help whoever they can, especially in a down market, because everybody’s trying to get that next piece of business,” Smith said.
A Sabor representative rebutted that geographic competency “is the broker’s responsibility.”
The number of MLSs in the country has almost halved in the last decade. The total number of MLSs operating in America fell 43 percent from a peak of about 850 in 2015 to 484 at the end of 2025, according to T3 Sixty’s Real Estate Almanac.
Consolidation was especially swift in Texas last year. The Lone Star State shed six MLSs and eight local associations through consolidation, representing about a third of the 23 local association closings nationwide.
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