Mid-America Regional Information Systems, Inc. (MARIS) has introduced what it lauds as the first tiered, metered data feed offered by a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that directly incorporates broker profit-sharing, according to a news release.
Starting this year, brokers who upload active listings to MARIS and successfully close those transactions will receive a percentage of the total revenue generated from MARIS data feeds, with distribution checks scheduled to begin in December.
“The real intent here is to create something in our space that benefits our brokers and also, ideally, is a model for what can be done in other markets around the country,” Cameron Paine, president and CEO of MARIS, told RISMedia in an interview on Monday.
He continued: “Many of our brokers are engaged in MLSs other than MARIS, either on a local, regional or a large national level, and they face the same challenges they face here. We thought that it would be really great to create something that would be a model for brokers to benefit from the listings that they bring to the MLS in the first place.”
The new system features a metered component that tracks monthly API hit volume and a tiered fee structure based on user classification and data feed type. The tiered system is designed to reward brokers who contribute listing data, with those adding the most value paying reduced rates or nothing for their data feeds.
MARIS serves more than 15,000 subscribers across 67 counties in Missouri and Illinois. It ranks as the 23rd-largest MLS in the United States.
The move comes amid ongoing industry debates about data ownership, usage rights and compensation models—including controversial private listing networks. While national listing information is available through various channels, listing brokers and MLSs have historically seen limited financial benefit from the sale of property data—until now.
“Every MLS is going to need to make their own independent decision on whether it makes sense in their marketplace, but what I’d like to try and prove is that this is not only possible, but beneficial to brokers,” Paine said. “The ultimate fact for me is that data has value. Right now, the only people not benefiting from that value are, in fact, the brokers and MLSs who are spending all the money to make sure the data is really good.”
Paine noted that there’s a whole network of data providers “making a lot of money based on the work that our brokers and MLSs are doing.”
“It’s time that the MLS try and incentivize the brokers who enter the listings in our system, and then if the MLS derives revenue from it, just drive that revenue right back to the brokers,” he said.
The profit-sharing program will calculate distributions based on each broker’s percentage of successfully closed listings entered into the MARIS system, with some larger brokerages potentially receiving “checks in the multiple tens of thousands of dollars,” according to MARIS.
