CAVEAT

I began my real estate career in Mount Airy in 1989. I love to tell stories about the “old days”! When I first started there were no cell phones or pagers – buyers and sellers called into a realty office, a receptionist answered during business hours and wrote messages on pink slips which were then slid into our little mail slot just behind the receptionist’s desk. If we were lucky, someone called us to “list” their house for sale. There were no stagers, professional photographers or consults about how to prepare your home for market – we simply took the call, filled out a one page agreement, took a black and white photo of the exterior of the house, drove to CVS to get the photo printed in 1 Hour, then used that one photo to give (had to drive it there or wait for it to be picked up!) to a sales rep, along with a short write up. Two weeks later, an ad would appear in our various chosen print media. Today, text, emails & calls come in on a property literally seconds after it is “listed’!

When I first started, there was no “internet” – we had MLS databases and listing books. There was one for Carroll and Howard County, one for Frederick County and one for Montgomery. To be an effective listing agent back then, Mount Airy agents had to enter data into ALL systems in order to show a property’s availability to all the agents within our 4 county area – without one photo. Not one photo – just data, and limited data at that.

Can you imagine a home search today with limited data and no photos? Ha! You would scroll right on by. Would anyone selling a house today hire an agent who doesn’t add – at minimum – inside and outside photos to their listings?

When MRIS – Metropolitan Regional Information Systems began – what has become a behemoth of a Multiple Listing Service in our area – now known as BrightMLS – it changed and consolidated everything for the better. I was one of the first subscribing members of MRIS and am still a member today. Over the years, this MLS has grown and perfected their platform, giving home agents, sellers and buyers the advantage of having the real estate market at their fingertips. We enter the data with a bit of help from the automation of MLS, and then our MLS shares that data with all other subscribing real estate sites. Even For-Sale-By-Owners understand the advantage of having their home listed on an internet-based MLS.

But there are some industry disruptors who believe our MLS and others like them across the nation, have gotten way too big for their britches. MRIS hit the ground running in 1993 and hasn’t stopped evolving while providing excellent service agents AND the public can rely on, all at a price that is extremely affordable and hasn’t increased in years. There is no other company or group of companies, or individuals, who can just set up shop and compete in the exact same manner to create a true source of competition. Why not? Because it would take too long, and it would take too much work. So they disrupt. They do so by a sales pitch to the consumer.

The sales pitch talks about “private-exclusive”, “off market deals”, “in-house sales”, “pocket listings”, “showcase listings” and “office exclusives”. Bottom line, it means the home you’re selling will NOT go into the MLS system – a system that will automatically send the data and photos of all listings to the world – to realtor.com, homes.com, remax.com, zillow.com, redfin.com and so on: virtually everywhere! What consumer who wants to sell their home in the least amount of time for the most money would agree to not going into the local MLS? The consumer who buys into the sales pitch of those brokerages which tout an office exclusive listing strategy – based on my experience over the course of 37 years – is doing themselves a HUGE disservice.

Ultimately, for sellers, the cost of selling your home is not going to vary by much. It isn’t. Read the fine print. BUT, the sales price might vary : The wider your net is cast for buyers, the better, right? For buyers, they’re now tasked at looking at multiple places to find all available inventory. For agents working with buyers, it has made what has been a very difficult job even more difficult. To try to disrupt the most simple, best working system I could have ever imagined back in 1989 just boggles my mind. This system encourages cooperation and fairness to all, no matter the size or the clout of any one brokerage, no matter who the buyer is, no matter who the seller is. Remember this: In the world of real estate, in our world today, “exclusive” means you’re shutting others out. Bottom line: It is morally and ethically wrong.

Stay tuned! Do your research if you’re in the market to buy or sell. There are lawsuits pending, legal battles over market transparency and a major anti-trust investigation. And remember, at the end of the day, most of the 40,000 +/- licensed agents in Maryland just want to help sellers sell and buyers buy.