The explosive period for Denver’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) may be over, but an even more controversial period may be beginning.
recolorado On Friday, it announced the sale to an entity owned by Joseph Burks. muzzle The final decision comes three months after the two real estate agent associations that previously owned the MLS removed their boards of directors for alleged violations of non-disclosure agreements.
“We are committed to ensuring that REcolorado not only remains a cornerstone of Colorado’s real estate community, but also continues to set the standard for excellence and innovation as a subscriber-centric MLS.” Birx said in a statement.
Denver Metro Realtors Association (DMAR) and South Metro Denver Association of Realtors (SMDRA) was a majority shareholder prior to its sale to Burks and MAZL. They started shopping at REcolorado at the beginning of the year.
One of the stakeholders they negotiated with was the existing board of directors, who believed they had reached a handshake deal to acquire MLS in February. However, DMAR and SMDRA suddenly announced the sale to Birks in June, shocking the board.
After news of the sale leaked to real estate blogs vendor array, DMAR and SMDRA removed REcolorado’s board and leadership, claiming that the leaks came from the board and constituted a breach of non-disclosure agreements.
A person close to the situation revealed that housing wire In June, long-standing tensions between the parties accelerated DMAR and SMDRA’s decision to sell to Birx rather than the board. The commission warned the Denver-area agency that REcolorado’s private ownership would have negative consequences, especially regarding data, which could include data breaches.
That chapter of the fight is over, but MAZL, led by Birx, is already teasing the Denver-area agency with a new participation agreement. In a post on his Substack, real estate consultant Rob Hahn claimed that the participation agreement violates the company’s terms. National Association of Realtors Rules if REcolorado was still owned by DMAR and SMDRA.
The new agreement, which agents must sign by October 9, will transfer ownership of listing data from listing agents to REcolorado itself. Additionally, the agreement requires agents to submit written requests to license data, which the MLS may deny for any reason.
Listing data is the most valuable asset an MLS has, and while MAZL must have been interested in REcolorado’s data when making the MLS purchase decision, NAR’s MLS Handbook states that MLSs are It states that it is not permitted to deny or restrict access to.
“[The agreement] is not [data] Ownership remains with the broker,” Hahn wrote. “I don’t know what that is, but it’s not ownership. So does REcolorado have the courage to tell brokers that they can audit their use of their own data? This is not an MLS . This is your lord and master.”
It’s unclear how the new participation agreement will affect the data-sharing agreements ReColorado signed with four other MLSs in January. REcolorado did not respond to a request for comment on the participation agreement in time for publication.
Although the terms of the new participation agreement have not yet fully sunk into Denver’s agent community, many agents expressed concerns about the sale to MAZL and Berks in June, and their concerns reflect how MLS is operating with respect to the new participation. It was also amplified by the dramatic change in Rules related to NAR’s $418 million antitrust settlement.
Changes to the Participation Agreement could address these concerns.
“The issue is much deeper than this,” Denver attorney Dave Ness said in an email to HousingWire. “The problem is we can’t change MLS even if we wanted to. ReColorado is the only MLS that exists in the Denver metropolitan area. It’s definitely a monopoly on the court. That’s the real problem.”
