Given that MLS services’ current existence is less about the technical innovation of disseminating market information with a shared database of listings, and more about aggressively protecting the status quo of the real estate industry by maintaining information asymmetry between brokers and market participants…I am inclined to react in the style of Jeremy Clarkson: “Oh no! Anyway…”
Just to clarify a few things, probably not entirely accurate as I'm not a Realtor, but I'm closer to the industry than most:<p>An MLS is really just a database and associated tooling for advertising properties among Realtors in an area.<p>The MLS is controlled by a Realtor Association or similar. This is basically all the Realtors/Brokers in an area working together. This is often a good place to concentrate some customer support and data integrity checks, compliance, etc..., for example.<p>Then there are the Realtors who work with sellers to market properties to buyers, and work with buyers to find the properties and oversee showings, etc...<p>Realtors vary in quality, for sure. Some sell 1-2 houses a year, some sell 1-2 houses a week.<p>The system surely has a lot of problems. But, it also provides value in a lot of ways that aren't easy to just remove. So you want to list your own house? Who's going to take the photos? Are you aware of the applicable laws, say WRT commercial drone photography? Do you know what will get you sued if you say it in a listing? How are you going to pick the price? On the other hand, you want to buy a property by directly searching the MLS: are you up for signing the data sharing contracts required to give you access to that data? How are you going to structure the offer? Do you know what a love letter is and whether it's allowed as part of the offer? Do you know the difference between being pre-approved and pre-qualified? How are you going to get access to the property and are you going to accept liability for any damage/theft? If the owner is directly showing the property (they want to remove the Realtor as well), are you both up for staring at each other uncomfortably as you look through their house? :-)<p>There's an awful lot of money that goes into the Realtor industry. But, if it were easy to get rid of, For Sale By Owner (FSBO) would be more popular. As far as I can tell, at least in my area, FSBO basically doesn't exist.<p>(Full disclosure: Not a Realtor, SysAdmin to an MLS)
> Not all regional listing services are affected because some use data vendors other than Rapattoni.<p>The headline here on HN seems inaccurate. The entire market is not halted.