Above, Josh Jarboe, broker/owner of REMAX Empire Buyers in Kentucky
Joe Hayden, in his recent op-ed, criticizes brokerages for innovating outside the MLS while simultaneously admitting sellers deserve choice and flexibility. You can’t have both.
The market is evolving, and some brokers are uncomfortable because they can no longer control where consumers search, market and transact real estate.
Yes, the MLS is critical infrastructure. Nobody seriously disputes that. Cooperative compensation and centralized listing data helped create the most transparent housing market in the world. But pretending the MLS should function as the sole gatekeeper of exposure forever is not ‘consumer advocacy.’ It’s protectionism.
Sellers do not all have identical goals. Some want maximum public exposure on day one. Others want privacy. Some want to test pricing quietly before going fully active. Some want to avoid disrupting children, tenants, employees, divorces, health situations or high-profile careers. The idea that every listing must follow one rigid distribution path in order to protect the “greater good” is outdated thinking.
That isn’t consumer protection. That’s forced uniformity.
The argument that private exclusives and pre-marketing strategies inherently harm buyers falls apart quickly under scrutiny. Buyers are not entitled to immediate access to every property the second a seller even considers moving. A homeowner has property rights. They should absolutely have the ability to decide how their home is introduced to the market, assuming they fully understand the tradeoffs.
And let’s stop pretending portals and large brokerages are the only entities monetizing consumers. Every brokerage monetizes consumers. Every portal monetizes traffic. Every agent monetizes transactions. That’s literally how business works. The issue is transparency and value delivered—not whether revenue exists.
I do agree that not every MLS needs regionalization or consolidation simply for the sake of consolidation. Bigger is not always better. In many local markets, including ours, there is very little practical benefit to handing more control to larger regional entities that lack understanding of local nuances, relationships, customs and governance needs. Local control matters when done correctly.
Consumers today are smarter, more informed and more connected than ever. The answer is not limiting options. The answer is disclosure, transparency and professional guidance.
And frankly, that’s where the real problem in this industry lies.
The bigger threat to consumers isn’t a private-exclusive strategy or a coming soon listing. It’s the alarming number of agents and even brokers operating in this business with little understanding of contracts, agency law, negotiation strategy, disclosure obligations, evolving regulations or basic professionalism. Consumers don’t suffer because they have too many marketing options. They suffer because they hired the wrong representation.
That’s the conversation the industry continues avoiding.
A strong MLS matters. Cooperation matters. Transparency matters. But innovation matters too. Competition matters too. Seller autonomy matters too.
The future of real estate is not going backward to a one-size-fits-all system where every brokerage must operate identically in the name of “fairness.” The future belongs to professionals who can educate consumers on all available strategies and help them choose the path that best aligns with their goals.
That’s what real representation looks like.
Josh Jarboe is broker/owner of REMAX Empire Buyers in Kentucky.
