Event Coverage

Bay Area MLS Consolidation Takes on New Name, New Board, More Members

Jeanne Garde and Jim Harrison updated SAMCAR Realtors and affiliates on MLS consolidation efforts at Tuesday’s Combined Tour Meeting, held at the Elks Lodge in San Mateo. Garde is past president of SAMCAR and serves as the NCREX Board of Directors Chair. Harrison is the former president and CEO of REIL.com and is now president and CEO of NCREX (Northern California Real Estate Exchange), the non-profit organization leading the consolidation of regional Northern California multiple listing systems (MLS).

Both Garde and Harrison informed SAMCAR members that a few days after NCREX acquired MLS providers RE InfoLink (the MLS serving Santa Clara and four other counties in the Bay Area) and the Central Valley MLS, NCREX agreed to join California MLSAlliance. The move is in line with efforts to consolidate MLS data within a seamless entity that will make the day-to-day work of real estate professionals easier.

California MLS Alliance provides a cross-MLS search engine for the nearly three million active and off-market listings throughout California by way of a data-sharing agreement among regional MLSs in both Northern and Southern California. With the new California MLSAlliance system, brokers and agents who belong to one of the 53 local real estate associations serviced by the 13 participating MLSs can now search one system to find listings spanning across the state.

NCREX premiered on Sept. 12 with a new board composed of brokers and managers of member associations, 23,000 subscribers and a $20 million annual operating budget, making it one of the largest MLSs in the country. The CA MLS Alliance represents listings from California MLSs with a total of over 180,000 subscribers in the state.

In addition to NCREX, the other MLSs participating in the California MLSAlliance include the Bay Area Real Estate Information Services, Inc. (BAREIS MLS®), Bay East Association of REALTORS®, Combined L.A./Westside MLS (CLAW), Contra Costa Asociation of Realtors, CRISNet Regional MLS, East Bay Regional Data (EBRD), Greater South Bay Regional MLS, iTech MLS, MetroList Services, Multi-Regional MLS
(MRMLS), San Francisco Association of REALTORS® and Southern California MLS.

Expanding market areas, cost, the difficulty of aggregating data across MLSs and the need for MLS to provide improved services to their members are reasons that prompted the move towards consolidation, explained Harrison. An MLS consolidation means centralized management, standard data and rules. Most important, subscribers would have access to more information. Garde and Harrison explained changes are targeted towards the elimination of duplication, and creation of one seamless MLS throughout the state.

Garde said the single data format utilized by NCREX “is truly a state of the art production” and can add significant number of subscribers without affecting members’ access. She said “We’re excited about what we’re doing with NCREX and hope to expand what we’re doing. SAMCAR’s leadership was instrumental in working to make this happen.”

Harrison said one of the NCREX Board’s initiatives is to greatly improve MLS.com, “making that utility more effective and pass it on to you and send people to your listings.” He noted, at present, MLS.com receives four million page views a week.

“We want to turn MLS.com into a destination site, with a consumer portal which will generate more traffic to drive listings to the agents,” said Harrison.

Both Garde and Harrison assured SAMCAR members NCREX continues to focus on adding information and improving services for members.

“We never stop evolving the program. We are a bottoms-up organization focusing on long-term better quality data. Everything we do is based on feedback from our customers,” said Harrison.

As the program evolves there will be changes and as new subscribers join the consolidation effort NCREX and REIL may be re-branded. He asked members to be patient with changes. “In the long run, you will be happy with this,” said Harrison.

The San Mateo County Association of REALTORS® (SAMCAR) is a professional trade organization representing over 3,800 REALTORS® and Affiliate members engaged in the real estate business on the Peninsula. SAMCAR promotes the highest ethical standards of real estate practice, serves as an advocate for homeownership and homeowners, and represents the interests of property owners in San Mateo County.

The term "REALTOR®" is a registered collective membership mark which identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of REALTORS® and who subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics.

For further information, please contact Julie Ziemelis, Director of Public Affairs, e-mail , or phone (650) 696-8214.

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