The announcement of the Open Real Estate initiative caused quite a stir this week, as industry professionals and analysts ponder how the national residential real estate data-sharing initiative will fit into the real estate ecosystem and what impact it will have.
On the surface, the initiative, which is focused on fostering agent and broker cooperation through the sharing of residential real estate listings and includes a rule that requires members to submit a property to the Open Real Estate database within one business day of signing a listing agreement with a homeowner, may sound a lot like the MLS.
But, the leaders of the initiatives’ four founding brokerage firms, AGNT, (the parent company of eXp Realtyand NextHome franchises), HomeServices of America, Keller Williams Realty and Real REMAX Group, all RealTrends Verified brokerages, have said that Open Real Estate is not a national MLS and is in no way replacing local MLSs.
According to initial announcements regarding Open Real Estate, listings input into its database will then be pushed out to the MLS and other portals and sites, or the listing can be directly entered into a brokerage’s local MLS, which will then supply the listing to portals, other sites and Open Real Estate. The founders have also stressed that they will leave rulemaking and enforcement up to the local associations and MLSs.
MLS impact
Despite these assurances, some in the industry still believe this could lead to the demise of MLSs as they currently exist, but MLS leaders aren’t so sure.
“My perspective is that Open Real Estate is a positive development for the industry and an opportunity to rethink how brokers and MLSs work together to support the businesses and consumers they serve,” Tim Dain, the CEO of Northstar MLS, told HousingWire. “I’m encouraged to see major brokerages taking a more active role in shaping the infrastructure that supports their businesses and the consumers they serve.”
Dain, a 2026 HousingWire Vanguard award winner, added that he doesn’t see Open Real Estate as “inherently threatening to MLSs,” but rather as a “significant opportunity” for brokers and MLSs to work together to modernize infrastructure, eliminate unnecessary duplication, improve data quality and create a more efficient marketplace.
Brian Donnellan, the CEO and president of Bright MLS has a similar view.
“I can certainly see how people can say that this is the end of the MLS, but don’t I see it that way,” Donnellan, a 2025 and 2026 HousingWire Vanguard award winner, said. “When I look at all they want to accomplish, I think it verifies that we at Bright have been doing things right for a while.”
In September 2025, Bright MLS announced the launch of a joint venture with multi-MLS listing management platform Ocusell to co-develop and license technology solutions and services for brokers, agents and MLSs nationwide. Ocusell’s technology has since been used to help independent brokerage Howard Hanna Real Estate Services launch HannaList, an internal listing portal designed to give sellers an early-access marketing option before a listing is widely distributed and to give agents a single point of listing entry.
Position of control
For Saul Klein, the CEO of San Diego MLS (SDMLS), this is exactly what Open Real Estate is about: first point of entry.
“Today, the MLS is still the first point of entry and there have been attempts over the years to change this, but nobody has been successful,” Klein said.
According to Klein, whoever is the first point of entry is the one in the “position of control,” and with that position comes responsibilities like governance, something Open Real Estate’s founders have said their organization is not interested in. Due to this, he sees a world where Open Real Estate could be a threat to MLSs, but he says that it’s still too early to tell.
“It is still a pipe dream,” Klein said. “They have to build the technology and integrate each company’s technology and workflows, and they are clear on MLS policies with their own 24-hour rule, but it is still too early to tell and MLSs can change their value proposition as this evolves.”
Donnellan says that Open Real Estate is just an example of brokerages deciding to take things into their own hands after the industry was too slow to react.
“These brokers have real problems that haven’t been solved yet,” he said. “This is an opportunity for everybody and if it creates more competition in the MLS space, that is good. It will bring out the best in everybody.”
Open Real Estate and the MLS
However, Donnellan said that this may create some winners and losers in the MLS space, leading to negative outcomes for MLSs that are unable or unwilling to compete or adapt.
“It’s probably a good thing that brokers get to choose who it is that they want to work with and how they work, and it’s probably better that the brokers get to set more guidelines,” Donnellan said.
As for how Open Real Estate will work alongside MLSs, MLS leaders are generally optimistic.
At Bright MLS, Donnellan is confident that his MLS will be able to collaborate with Open Real Estate.
“I think Open Real Estate’s goals are something Bright has been working towards for a long time — effectively working across the country, reducing some of the obsolete, outdated and redundant technology,” Donnellan said. “We’ve always been there to work for our brokers, and we’ve always wanted to work with other MLSs. Now, with the tide is going out, we are going to see who actually does want to work with brokers and other MLSs and who doesn’t want to work. You’re not going to be able to run and hide now.”
Klein, however, still has questions, including if they can convince agents to adopt a new work flow and how the entity will eventually support itself if it does not have a complete data set.
“The portals have made billions of dollars in revenue from leads, which shows that MLS data is worth something, but only when aggregated as a full data set,” Klein said.
Hope and help for the future
Looking back on the past few decades as the MLS has evolved from printed listing books to the digital form it has today, Donnellan says there are things the MLSs could do better, viewing Open Real Estate as a chance to truly make a difference in the era of real estate the industry is headed into.
“We are heading from the internet world. I don’t think we did a good job protecting the rights of brokers in the internet world,” Donnellan said. “We’ve done a lot of different things, but I think those rights are being abused at different times. Now is the time to make sure it doesn’t happen in the artificial intelligence world.”
Dain agrees, stating that the MLS shouldn’t “confuse protecting its mission with protecting every aspect of its existing business model.”
“Our responsibility is to preserve cooperation, market transparency and data integrity, not necessarily every system or workflow we’ve built over the past several decades,” Dain said. “I’d encourage fellow MLS executives to approach Open Real Estate with curiosity and an open mind rather than defensiveness. We should be looking for opportunities to help shape the future, not simply reacting to change. The industry is better served when we work together to build what comes next.”
