Bright MLS, CRMLS, and MRED Collaborate on Offering Choice in Showing Management

ROCKVILLE, Md. and CHINO HILLS, Calif. and LISLE, Ill., June 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Three of the nation's leading multiple listing services (MLSs) announced today that they are strategizing to create standards to support choice in showings for the MLS industry.

As the backbone of the residential real estate transaction, MLSs provide the most efficient marketplace for showing services to do business. Leaders from Bright MLS, California Regional MLS (CRMLS), and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) recognized growth in the showing service space and have come to the shared realization that an underlying API for service providers would create the best experience for real estate professionals, MLSs, and showing services alike.

The project will define a set of guidelines to simplify the real-time exchange of information between showing services, MLSs, brokerages, and other data consumers. Its goal is to create a standard that serves as an agreement on how to structure information, as well as standards on how providers and consumers will send and receive information. All three organizations are heavily involved with RESO and supportive of data standardization across the industry via the RESO Data Dictionary.

Leaders from each MLS stressed that this is neither a consolidation nor an attempt to own any showing service provider. Rather, it is a collaborative effort to offer brokers and agents options in how they handle showings via the MLS.

"We want to offer an API to unite showing solutions across the entire residential real estate industry in North America," said Art Carter, CEO of CRMLS. "Whether a broker subscribes to one or more than one MLS, their challenge is working with numerous showing platforms that don't talk to each other."

"This project gives showing services a Rosetta stone," Carter added. "It enables easy translation between different showing service 'languages.'"

"In the end, it's all about offering options," said Brian Donnellan, President and CEO of Bright MLS. "The one thing we don't want is a monolithic solution to this pain point. We want our community of professionals to make their own decisions on their showing providers."

"Our brokerages have told us that they want the ability to have more choices when it comes to what showing service platform they want to use," said Rebecca Jensen, president and CEO of MRED. "By working together, we can better address a challenge confronting brokerages nationwide."

After gathering feedback from the broader real estate community, the three MLSs plan to unveil the API in Q3 2021.

About Bright MLS Bright MLS's real estate service area spans 40,000 square miles throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia. As a leading multiple listing service (MLS), Bright supports over 95,000 real estate professionals who in turn serve the more than 20 million homeowners in our footprint. In 2020, Bright's customers facilitated $116.3B in real estate transactions through our system. For more information, please visit www.brightmls.com.  

About California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) California Regional MLS is the nation's largest and most recognized subscriber-based MLS, dedicated to servicing more than 100,000 real estate professionals from 40 Associations, Boards, and MLS organizations. CRMLS is the industry powerhouse and thrives on providing the most relevant products and services to its subscribers. For more information on CRMLS, visit www.crmls.org.

About MRED Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) is dedicated to serving more than 47,000 real estate professionals in more than 7,500 offices. The MLS serves Illinois and portions of southern Wisconsin and northwestern Indiana. MRED is a member of the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO), MLS Grid and the Broker Public Portal. For more information, please visit MREDLLC.com

Contacts
Christy Reap  I  Bright MLS   I   203-309-9362   I   [email protected]
Art Carter   I   CRMLS   I    [email protected]
Jon Broadbooks   I   MRED   I   217-836-1958   I   [email protected]

SOURCE Bright MLS, CRMLS and MRED