What is the MLS?

Rob Chipman, a Vancouver Realtor and avid blogger has written an informative introduction on the MLS, what it is and what it isn’t. Many of us Canadians use MLS.ca to search for homes and we have begun to take it for granted for something it isn’t, a public utility.

This mistake in identity has recently prompted CREA to redesign mls.ca with this clearly on the front page:

This web site is an advertising vehicle provided by REALTORS® across Canada to help market properties. This web site is not an MLS® system. Please contact a REALTOR® for complete details about all properties listed here.

I like to think about the Real Estate industry as cucumbers and the Internet as brine. Given enough time cucumbers become more pickled than brine becomes more cucumbered. Since mls.ca already has a good balance between what information is public or private, I suggest they invest in making data more accessible. You only have to look at their robots.txt file to see their current policy.

Giving people the data with good usage guidelines means innovation but innovation is a double edged sword. The fear is that they are accountable for controlling the data yet letting it loose would mean they have less control. Doesn’t sound like a very good deal, all the accountability but none of the control.

However, keeping the data under tight control also doesn’t make for happy people, people who pay their members. They have a tough job of finding the balancing point. Fortunately for me, the cucumbers are slowly getting pickled.