SourceRE, provider of MLS data solutions, has announced the results of a forensic pilot conducted in partnership with Hive MLS that uncovered multiple major vendors enabling the unauthorized distribution of MLS data to parties circumventing the MLS.
According to a release, the pilot, launched in Q1 2026, utilized SourceRE’s proprietary Data Dye forensic tracking technology, applying a different Data DyeTM to each vendor pulling data from the MLS. As a result, the two entities say theyy didn’t just find violations–they caught violators.
Data Dye scanned thousands of vendor URLs and cross-referenced them against licensing records, permitted use locations, and publicly available information across the Hive MLS market. The findings revealed three distinct sources of revenue loss: Under-reporting of licenses, license circumvention and license misclassification.
“The grey market has been an open secret in this industry for years,” said Joe Schneider, president of SourceRE. “Everyone has suspected that MLS data is being used in ways it was never licensed for. But until now, no one has had the tools or the evidence to prove it. Our partnership with Hive MLS gave us the opportunity to demonstrate what’s really happening.”
Key findings from the Hive MLS pilot
Hive MLS, representing over 19,000 brokers and appraisers across the Southeast, partnered with SourceRE to bring more visibility into their data licensing operations.
The pilot flagged over 1,000 licensing violations across Hive MLS’s vendor ecosystem. The technology also detected vendors declaring licensees for a purpose beyond their product’s permitted use, effectively re-selling MLS data and allowing circumventors to bypass the MLS entirely.
“What stood out most wasn’t the surprise, it was validation,” said Daniel Jones, CEO of Hive MLS. “We approached this with a deliberate strategy to surface the answers and generate defensible evidence needed to shut down the grey market. As part of Hive’s mandate, we are responsible stewards of our Participants’ data, and that responsibility requires visibility into how it’s actually being used. While external threats like unlicensed scraping do exist, our pilot made it clear that a meaningful share of value leakage is happening much closer to home. That visibility creates an immediate ROI by giving MLSs the leverage to enforce, correct, and recapture lost value.”
The reason these violations haven’t been caught sooner is simple: The licensing workflows, compliance processes, and monitoring systems that most MLSs rely on today were never designed for this level of oversight. They’re outdated, largely manual, and can’t keep pace with the volume and complexity of modern vendor relationships.
How Data Dye works
According to the organizations, Data Dye tracks grey market activity by making MLS listing data traceable at the listing level. When listing content appears in unauthorized locations, Data Dye identifies exactly which vendor feed it originated from and automatically logs it as a violation.
The system continuously monitors the internet for matches to these dyed identifiers. Each violation record includes the originating feed, listing identifiers, the unauthorized URL, and screenshot evidence showing how and where the listing is being displayed. All violations are tracked over time, providing MLSs with forensic-grade proof of unauthorized data use.
Industry-wide implications
Based on the Hive MLS pilot findings, estimates infer that MLSs across the United States are collectively losing upwards of $50 million annually to grey market activity.
“These are systemic issues, and they require systemic solutions,” Schneider said. “But they are entirely fixable. Data Dye™ gives MLSs visibility into their entire data licensing operations in ways that current systems simply can’t provide.”
For more information visit https://www.ncrmls.com/ or https://www.sourceredb.com/.
