International MLS Forum at Year Two

By Bill Fowler | October 14, 2024

As I wrote in my previous post before arriving in Milan, my expectations were high that our group of industry professionals would leave the event with some tangible results. At the very least, I’d hoped this collection of some of the most influential people in global real estate would set a plan of action to serve as a rallying point. Paris was a great start, but Milan would prove whether or not this conference had long term merit.

Based on my RESO experience, I believe the International MLS Forum will earn further legitimacy by building on a unified vision. Momentum will be generated when attendees band together under a single mandate, then set short and long term goals. When progress is made, even if it’s incremental, stakeholders have an opportunity to see past politics and competitive friction to work together for a greater purpose, as a unit.

To put it more succinctly, as an international community of vastly-different perspectives, to realize success, The International MLS Forum must rally around the principle that we’re not just investing in technology, we’re investing in each other.

That was my frame of mind as I took the stage as moderator of the panel on MLSs and Emerging Technologies. My panelists were some of the brightest minds currently working in real estate tech, which created a unique challenge for me. My job was to keep the discussion on generative AI, machine learning, and blockchain relevant to a room full of people, many of whom were just coming to terms with the concept of MLS itself.

All indications are that things went well, but the most interesting aspects of the day, and really the most important moment of the conference as a whole in my opinion, took place in a discussion later that evening. Joe, Andrew, Meagan, and I were enjoying some decompression time with a group of international leaders, discussing our takeaways from the conference, when I asked the question about the immediate impact of MLS in a global environment.

I wanted to hear a candid answer from this group (in a much more relaxed setting) if we're all just running in circles; is there real potential for meaningful partnerships between the US and our friends in the global real estate community? What can we learn from each other, and more importantly, how do we take the best aspects of each or our knowledge and experience, and create meaningful, lasting value?

The answers were interesting.

The fact is that many international real estate markets currently operating without a centralized MLS as “single source of truth,” don’t consider their circumstances as inherently flawed. Yes, there is great need for optimization and increased technological efficiencies, but not all agree that international market conditions are inherently broken. To the Americans in the room, this was enlightening. We look across the oceans that separate us and see a decentralized system of exchanging property information from broker-to-broker that looks more like a chaotic stream of individual conversations and less like a vibrant and transparent digital marketplace – and that’s not broken? Haven’t we Americans figured this out and we’re here to evangelize our worldview to everyone else? Clearly, the answer is a resounding, “maybe.”

The critical point that we kept coming back to during this lobby bar conversation was concerning transparency. The fact is, global markets are getting along just fine without the consumer-focused and increasingly-regulated American concept of consumer transparency. In global settings, properties are being sold every day to happy buyers without access to hundreds of data points and a list of online portals offering every last (verifiable) detail of a property. To our international colleagues, this isn’t ideal and there’s interest in aspects of the MLS value proposition, but their markets aren’t necessarily in need of an overhaul either. As I listened to this fascinating conversation, it occurred to me that our successes as champions of MLS to the world at large might hinge on this one issue; the fuzzy concept of transparency.

Still, what I witnessed in Milan was remarkably encouraging. There was at least a tripling of the crowd of attendees from Paris along with a lot more American MLS leaders in the room. Thanks to the incredible efforts of a handful of very committed people, The International MLS Forum is gaining momentum, without question. In that way, my expectations were met. We’re onto something here, and the right people are paying attention and participating in big ways. In just one example, RESO is setting agendas on establishing the critical data standards in numerous countries.

That’s a great start, but what then? What is our rallying point? What is the grand vision under which we will cast aside our biases to chase a greater outcome? Is it transparency? Probably.

However, when transparency is an aspiration instead of a foundation on which to build a marketplace, where are we as a community in terms of establishing MLS across global boundaries? As Americans wholly committed to the principles of transparency and “single source of truth,” are we here to advocate for MLS or something far more fundamental? Is it our responsibility to talk about cutting-edge AI and machine learning or should we be focusing our energies on showing our friends across the world that more information in the hands of their clients means something financially tangible?

MLS has proven that transparency means more deals. More deals, means more money. However, if we can’t sell that connection to our friends across the oceans, we may need a lot more lobby bar conversations.