Real estate’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was built on a century of shared data and mutual trust among brokers. Now, a panel of industry executives says that trust between agents and consumers is fraying as more properties get pulled into private listing networks.
And, increasingly, panelists warn trust and cooperation between rival brokerages is wearing thin, spelling trouble for a housing industry already facing economic headwinds and growing scrutiny.
The Aug. 11 panel, moderated by Colette Stevenson, CEO of REsides, a borderless MLS platform, included Curt Beardsley, former vice president of Industry Development with Zillow, Holly Mabery, chief brokerage officer at eXp Realty and Greg Robertson, co-founder of Cloud CMA and publisher of the Vendor Alley blog.
The wide-ranging discussion examined the ongoing listing wars and implications for the MLS, delving into who actually controls listing data, how widely it’s distributed and who profits from it.
Mabery said that while listings belong to individual agents, in the eyes of regulators, the brokerage carries legal responsibility for managing the listing. Robertson conceded that MLSs treat the question inconsistently, likening it to baking a cake.
“There’s some MLSs that say, ‘Hey, brokers, you own the ingredients, but we own the cake when it’s made,’” Robertson said, adding, “and some MLSs say, ‘Well, we own the cake and the ingredients.’ And then another MLS might say, ‘Well, we’re just the kitchen.’”
Regulators taking notice
That inconsistent patchwork approach is an issue. According to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), the Clear Cooperation Policy adopted in 2020 requires listing brokers to submit a property to the MLS within one business day of marketing it publicly. The rule is designed to curb pocket listings shared only with select buyers.
NAR revised the rule in 2025, adding a multiple listing options for sellers policy that lets sellers delay public syndication of their listings while still meeting MLS submission requirements.
That background shaped much of the panel’s concern about listings moving away from the MLS. Robertson warned of a “cascade effect” if private listings become the default. Incomplete data would make comparable sales figures impossible to glean, which would undermine pricing, hurt appraisals and trickle down to lenders, he said.
He pointed out this could invite more government interference, with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and the NAACP already raising concerns about restricted listing access.
Compass, a leading proponent of the private listing model, was specifically called out by federal lawmakers in the past couple months. The brokerage has fiercely defended the practice as “seller choice,” noting that homebuilders have long been exempt from MLS rules that govern most agents and brokers and accusing MLS incumbents (and Zillow) of monopolistic practices.
“This is scrutiny that we don’t want and need, and we don’t want the government into this,” Robertson said. “It’s just a lawsuit waiting to happen. Can we somehow resolve this ourselves as an industry? I hope so, because I don’t want anybody, especially the government, in our business.”
‘Gatekeeping from consumers’
The panelists agree that private listings are leading to a more fragmented housing market that’s reminiscent of previous generations. And that’s concerning for a number of reasons.
Stevenson pointed out that as more listings live outside the MLS, that creates opportunities but also notable risks.
“We have accuracy, we worry about transparency,” Stevenson said. “There’s duplication, there’s confusion. Maybe there’s some cooperation issues. There’s local market knowledge that maybe isn’t entering into the actual situation.”
Comparing private listings to her grandfather’s era of three-by-five-inch index cards traded at the local diner, Mabery said the industry is “reverting back” to that model—amplified with AI and technology.
“That’s why we’re starting to see regulators and lawmakers say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t work for us because now you’re gatekeeping from consumers that you shouldn’t be gatekeeping from, and that’s problematic,’” Mabery said.
Beardsley, drawing on Zillow’s experience hosting FSBO listings for years, said FSBO sellers, who now account for just 5% of the market, routinely find themselves outmatched by professional photography, floor plans and virtual tours found on major portals. Fraud and stale pricing make owner-listed properties costly for platforms to police.
“For consumers, there’s a total lack of trust right now,” Beardsley said, adding that keeping a large swath of listings off-market won’t help matters. “We want to make sure that if there’s a home for sale that we know about out there, even if it’s for-sale-by-owner, we present it to the consumers out there to build that trust.”
Can agents, MLSs outlast AI?
When the discussion turned to AI, executives expressed cautious optimism about agents’ staying power. While AI excels at written knowledge—disclosures, contracts, market data, listing descriptions—Beardsley said it lacks “implicit knowledge,” the kind gained only through experience, as well as “emotional knowledge,” or the ability to read a client’s temperament.
Mabery agreed, adding that AI is “the great leveler” of information, but noted that agents must differentiate themselves by translating that information into a personalized plan and surfacing their clients’ unspoken fears.
“Your emotional intelligence and how you show up and read the room is going to be absolutely invaluable,” Mabery emphasized. “What becomes sacred is how we use (AI and information) and how we leverage our value in communicating with the other person.”
Robertson is convinced agents aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“The real estate agent is undefeated so far,” Robertson said. “(The agent has) gone through the internet, it’s gone through mobile. I think it’s going to make it through AI.”
Asked what would happen if Big Tech entered residential real estate tomorrow, Beardsley indicated he isn’t worried. He pointed to past failures like Google Base and Microsoft’s listing service, arguing that without the MLS’s compliance structure and enforcement mechanisms, “nobody can trust the data.”
Mabery and Robertson both predict that any new entrant would eventually build an agent program of its own, pointing out that disruptors from Zillow’s old iBuying arm to Redfin have historically embraced agents instead of replacing them.
The panelists capped off the discussion giving their two cents on legacy MLS rules. Both Mabery and Robertson said they want to see floor plans on every listing, while Beardsley wants photo watermarks to disappear from listing photos.
Mabery offered some food for thought about how real estate agents should position themselves for the future.
“In real estate, I need to be very consistent with the market I serve and the people I serve,” she said. “It’s all about the people. If we can’t focus on that, then, yeah, AI will eat somebody else’s lunch.”
