By Daniel Jones, CEO of Hive MLS

Back in the day, I was naive enough to think that the MLS was simply a fancy word for "database." I used different platforms – Ambiance, Black Knight, Rapattoni, Navica – and thought, "Well, some of these have cool user interfaces, but all it is in the background is a database!"

I considered myself a database expert in the late 90's. I created a database for employees clocking in and out. The thing about databases is they are always dependent on users. Users do not all naturally gravitate to the idea of cooperating with people they don't know. Over time, this insight became my "aha" moment. A database of listings is not the MLS! The MLS is a contract to cooperate as MLS participants sign an agreement stating that fact.

Technology will come and go. Databases and interfaces will morph and evolve. Policies will be removed and reformed. But the MLS will survive. Let me explain why.

Compensation is Not Cooperation
"Blanket unilateral compensation offers," for example, have disappeared from the MLS landscape. Well, are we still an MLS without compensation? Absolutely. We are still an MLS because the agreement to cooperate is still alive. We also know what a database is when cooperation is not required. Just look at the Commercial Information Exchange (CIE), where cooperation is not required.

As the backbone of our industry, cooperation is critically important. At its core, the MLS is a cooperative contract that mandates collaboration among its participants. At the same time, CIE presents a more lenient framework, primarily functioning as a marketing tool that does not inherently require compensation or cooperation. The MLS may serve as a marketing tool, but its underlying purpose is cooperation.

What Is the MLS?
The MLS is a non-discriminatory, real-time communications device where licensees share and receive the full compilation of the highest-quality data in a marketplace. The proper MLS also is a "Fair Housing Opportunist."

Clear Cooperation is the most concise enforcement methodology that ensures fair opportunities in the communication of a listing. However, even without the Clear Cooperation rule, the MLS is still a cooperative beast. Cooperation gives the masses a fair opportunity rather than promoting property to an inner circle of friends. The MLS also looks out for the seller's best interests—it gets human bias and error "out of the way" and lets the fair market get "in the way." It lets the market do its job!

Cooperation Without Compensation

How is cooperation without compensation possible? Well, that requires a paradigm shift. I have witnessed agent after agent find their way through this, educating sellers and buyers. "Here is the value of my service, it's worth this much," or, "Hey, if you want me to offer this level of service for you, here's one deal; otherwise, here's another deal I can do for you."

We still don't have it all figured out, as cooperation is more "spirit" than "tangible" when no money exchanges hands. However, this is precisely what we need. We need the spiritual reward of cooperation: satisfied buyers and satisfied sellers.

If the MLS is concerned about its existence in this new world, then the MLS needs to focus on being the cooperation you want to see. That sounds cliché—but it is true. It's easy to talk about cooperation, but we must "be" cooperative. Let us be the partners our participants need, our community expects, and our stakeholders deserve.

History as a Guide
Remember Adobe's purchase of Flash for $3.4 billion? That’s about $10 per person in the US in 1996. But it stagnated and became irrelevant within a decade.

How could that happen? Giants like YouTube needed Flash. How could they live on without them? Because the "spirit" lived on – it was the "product" that died. The "spirit" in the Flash example is that people wanted interactive, live entertainment: video and audio streaming through their computers. The "product" of Flash disappeared because it could not keep up with our ever-changing times.

It sometimes takes an epiphany to realize that you must tap into something different than "a better product" or a "suite of products" to survive our technological world of change. Products, including software and software-as-a-service (SaaS), will come to some end and evolve into something else. It's a fact of life.

An MLS that has no spirit is simply a husk of rules and regulations. It might even have the best products available and the power of Nvidia at its fingertips – but without spirit, its tools will disappear, just like Flash.

The husk of the MLS needs to be simplified with interchangeable parts and API models. When it does this, it positions itself as an entity prepared to grow and adapt harmoniously with technological advancements.

Centering Your Cooperative
Today, as we rebrand ourselves as Hive, the symbolism resonates within our mission: to embody cooperation akin to bees working in unison for the survival of the colony. The essence of Hive represents increased autonomy among participants: to ensure the value of cooperative engagement remains integral to our identity. We actively explore new fields and nurture innovative ideas because it's fundamental to sustaining growth in an increasingly competitive market.

Moreover, understanding that data is our industry's honeypot opens untold possibilities. But we must treat this resource with the utmost care and openness to flourish collectively, enriching the cooperative spirit that birthed our coalition. The beauty of cooperation is a symbiotic relationship where the success of one translates into the success of all.

A cooperative spirit must never be sacrificed in favor of pursuing technological dominance. Focusing on transforming into technological behemoths or amassing market share contradicts the foundational collaborative purpose of MLSs.

Our attention must remain on serving the brokerage community: facilitating their efforts, simplifying their tasks, and supporting them with the technology they need to succeed in an evolving marketplace.

The Brass Tacks
The integrity of the MLS ecosystem rests upon its commitment to the culture of cooperation. Remove cooperation—and there is no MLS. Instead, at best, we have an information exchange.

Sell the MLS to the highest bidder and lose the culture of cooperation? You have an information exchange. What will happen if we have an information exchange for a year or so? Another MLS will form from the ashes because brokers benefit by cooperating with other brokerages.

The MLS is a brokerage-to-brokerage beast with a spirit of its own: as custodians, it's an honor to help raise and train it. My advice: avoid getting stung, treat it right, and let's never take it for granted.

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