10/26/2026
More than a decade ago, a broad coalition of residential real estate brokerage leaders came together to articulate a shared vision for how brokerage data should be managed, protected, and distributed.
These leaders represented companies of different sizes, operating in different markets, under different business models. They were competitors in the marketplace, but they recognized that many of their challenges were the same.
Their aspirations weren't especially complicated. They wanted greater efficiency, more control over their own data, less duplication, lower costs, and better opportunities to innovate.
And they wanted to accomplish those things while preserving the cooperation among brokers that has made the MLS such a valuable part of the American real estate marketplace.
The resulting vision was ambitious, but it was also practical. Here are 10 of the objectives that emerged from those conversations—objectives that remain just as relevant today.
1. Enter data once.
A brokerage shouldn't have to enter the same listing information into multiple systems, sometimes repeatedly, just to conduct its business. Enter it once, maintain it in one place, and allow authorized systems to receive the information they need. That should be the goal.
2. Give brokers meaningful control over their own data.
Brokerages invest considerable resources in creating, collecting, verifying, maintaining, and improving data. They should have meaningful authority over how that data is distributed, who receives it, and the purposes for which it may be used, subject to applicable agreements, laws, and the legitimate requirements of cooperative marketplaces.
3. Establish a single, authoritative source for brokerage data.
Listing data is only one part of the information a brokerage manages. Property information, photographs, transaction details, agent and office records, and other business data often reside in disconnected systems.
Brokers have long envisioned a more coherent approach in which their information can be maintained centrally and shared appropriately across the applications they choose to use.
4. Make participation in multiple MLSs less burdensome.
Many brokerages operate across several MLS territories. Each MLS may have different systems, data fields, rules, and procedures.
Brokers should be able to maintain their information in a consistent environment and distribute it efficiently to the MLSs in which they participate, meeting each marketplace's legitimate requirements without unnecessary duplication of effort.
5. Improve accuracy, consistency, and timeliness.
When the same information must be entered and maintained in multiple places, discrepancies are almost inevitable.
A more connected approach to data management should reduce errors, improve consistency, and make updates available promptly to authorized recipients. Better data benefits brokers, agents, MLSs, and ultimately consumers.
6. Reduce unnecessary operating costs.
Duplicative data entry, repeated integrations, inconsistent standards, redundant systems, and the labor required to reconcile information all impose real costs.
Brokerages would rather invest those resources in serving customers, supporting agents, improving technology, and growing their businesses.
7. Give brokers greater control over data licensing and distribution.
Brokers should have a meaningful voice in determining which publishers, technology vendors, and other recipients may use their data—and under what conditions.
That includes better transparency, clearer permissions, stronger protection against unauthorized uses, and the ability to pursue appropriate business opportunities arising from the information they create and maintain.
8. Make brokerage innovation easier, not harder.
Brokerages should be free to develop their own technology, select the vendors that best serve their businesses, and change those vendors when better options emerge.
Accessing and using their own data shouldn't require rebuilding complex integrations, navigating unnecessary obstacles, or depending on a particular technology provider's willingness to cooperate.
The technology infrastructure of our industry should enable competition and innovation, not constrain them.
9. Embrace common standards and interoperability.
Different systems should be able to communicate reliably, securely, and efficiently.
Common data definitions, modern APIs, consistent processes, and industry standards can reduce friction throughout the real estate ecosystem.
The objective isn't to make every brokerage, MLS, or technology provider identical. It's to make their systems work together without unnecessary complexity.
10. Create shared infrastructure that benefits brokerages of every size.
These aspirations were never intended to be exclusive to large companies or any particular business model.
Independent firms, regional brokerages, national enterprises, franchise organizations, and smaller local companies all have an interest in greater efficiency, stronger data protections, and better technology choices.
Solutions should be accessible and practical for the broader brokerage community.
And one principle underlies all ten: Cooperation and innovation are not competing objectives.
The MLS has provided extraordinary value by facilitating cooperation among competing brokers and creating an organized marketplace in which information can be shared for the benefit of buyers and sellers.
Nothing about these longstanding brokerage aspirations requires abandoning that fundamental value.
But preserving the MLS's essential role doesn't mean every piece of brokerage information must originate inside an MLS system, or that the MLS must serve as the starting point for every brokerage technology workflow.
A brokerage should be able to create and maintain its information in systems of its choosing, transmit the appropriate data to the MLS, and participate fully in the cooperative marketplace.
The greatest opportunity is not to replace cooperation, but to modernize the infrastructure that supports it.
For that to happen, technology providers must deliver reliable, secure, standards-based solutions. Brokerage leaders must remain engaged. And MLSs must be willing partners—particularly in accepting and maintaining accurate data that originates in brokerage-controlled systems rather than requiring redundant entry through their own interfaces.
These ideas weren't invented yesterday. They weren't the vision of a single company. They grew out of extensive discussions among brokerage leaders who recognized that, despite their competitive differences, they shared many of the same operational challenges and aspirations.
The technology has evolved enormously since those conversations began. Our expectations for interoperability, data access, and system integration have evolved with it.
But the underlying goals haven't changed.
Enter once. Control and protect the data. Share it appropriately. Reduce duplication. Lower costs. Improve accuracy. Enable innovation. Embrace standards. Make it work across markets. And make the benefits available to all brokers.
That's what brokerage leaders wanted then.
It's what they still want today.
And it's a vision worth continuing to pursue.
-- Craig Cheatham, president and CEO of The Realty Alliance
