...a little about multiple listing services

In the year 1908, the National Real Estate Exchanges was first established. During the first decade of the 20th Century, one of the early goals for the National Real Estate Exchanges was to facilitate an effective cooperation system which could be used by different real estate brokerages to sell real estate. In summary, these were the earliest days of what we today refer to as cooperation among REALTORS.

The National Real Estate Exchanges set out to find good ways to communicate the benefits of - and the saleable features for - individual properties which were available to be purchased through members of the National Real Estate Exchanges. This would have been real estate which was only able to be made available to the buying public through the earliest centralized efforts of cooperation undertaken by National Real Estate Exchanges members.

The National Real Estate Exchanges established innovative methods for member-brokers to effectively communicate - i.e.: sell - the features of the real estate they were marketing, to other member-brokers. These were other real estate brokers, that is, who were working at different real estate offices. The idea being, these could be real estate brokers who may very well have had the right buyers for the properties their colleagues were promoting.

The National Real Estate Exchanges, in the early days of the 20th Century, was committed to facilitating processes that could be used by member-brokers to sell real estate. While simultaneously developing processes through which those real estate sales could take place. Helping National Real Estate Exchanges member-brokers to sell their properties. Helping National Real Estate Exchanges member-brokers to locate properties for their buyers. To simplify: cooperation among members to sell real estate.?

In the very, very beginning of the business of property-information-sharing, taking place a couple of times each month, what was then the dissemination of MLS property information would have looked like the physical delivery of property information - delivery by real estate brokers - to the actual doorsteps of other real estate brokers, at their brick-and-mortar real estate offices. The earliest stages of REALTOR cooperation, and the very earliest forms of the sharing of information about properties in the real estate industry. It looked very much like property information drop-offs: 1) head over to the local real estate office, 2) drop off information about properties which were available for sale.

Preceding this physical dropping off of property information at the front doors of real estate offices, in the late-19th Century, real estate brokers liked to meet in the offices of their local real estate trade associations. To discuss the properties the brokers were selling. The meetings which took place at offices of these local real estate trade associations were scheduled with an intent for the brokers to share information about their properties. And to sell their real estate. Real estate brokers who participated in these early-on MLS member meetings agreed to compensate one another...a collaborative effort undertaken to assist one another in the sale of member-brokers' properties. Functioning something like this: Help me to sell my property, and I'll help you to sell yours...

At these early-20th Century association meetings, brokers would have conversations with other member-brokers about the properties they had available. Discussing specific criteria applicable to the properties the brokers were hoping to sell. Sell, that is, by presenting their properties to their trade association colleagues; colleagues who would meet - regularly - at their local real estate trade association office. To find properties for their buyers. To sell their properties through their colleagues. Broker cooperation.

Today, there are just about sixty-thousand licensed REALTORS in New Jersey. Florida has over two-hundred twenty-thousand licensed REALTORS. This makes Florida - by far - the most highly-concentrated state, in terms of licensed REALTORS. There are in the range of two-hundred two-thousand licensed REALTORS in California. In Texas, there are over one-hundred fifty-thousand licensed REALTORS.

Using Texas as our example, those 150,000-plus Texas REALTORS access Texas MLS property information through a consortium of Texas multiple listing services. Each of which are managed and controlled by the Texas Real Estate Commission.

One of the oldest MLS’s in the state of Texas is the Austin Board of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service. The origin of the Austin Board of REALTORS goes all the way back to the year 1918…its establishment in Austin taking place a mere ten years after the earliest formation of what would go on to become the National Association of REALTORS. Today, the Austin Board of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service serves over 18,000 real estate professionals practicing their craft in eighteen Texas counties.

In the United States today, MLS’s are organized locally. And they are managed locally too. The importance of local MLS management - and local MLS control - can be found to be quite evident when one thinks about real estate listings in the state of Texas.?

In Texas, MLS property descriptions may include pertinent information about - among other features such as kitchens, bedrooms, and property taxes - oil leases, mineral rights, as well as additional considerations which could be applicable to oil and gas interests. These would be Texas property details - about oil and gas, that is - which may be included (with relevance) in many Texas MLS property listings. As these property details about oil and gas in Texas would not be so relevant, for example, in Florida MLS property listings or in New Jersey MLS property listings. Because the energy industry would be more of a factor for real estate valuation in Houston, Texas, than it would be for property valuation in Holmdel, New Jersey. Or in Miami. Or in Los Angeles. Accordingly, the argument for localized MLS control and management.

The largest MLS in the state of Texas is the Houston Association of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service. Houston's MLS was established in 1918. Serving over 164,000 real estate agents and brokers, the Houston Association of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service is the 10th largest MLS in the country.

The California Regional Multiple Listing Service is the largest multiple listing service in the United States. The California Regional Multiple Listing Service serves over 100,000 REALTORS, as well as 40-plus local associations, boards, and MLS’s.

Two other notably large - large, as measured against other MLS’s in the United States - are also?domiciled in California: 1) the LA/Westside MLS, and 2) the California Regional MLS. The LA/Westside MLS serves over 16,000 agents and brokers in California.

The largest MLS in the state of New Jersey - and the 39th largest MLS in the country - is the Monmouth-Ocean Regional REALTORS Multiple Listing Service. Established in 1936, Monmouth-Ocean Regional REALTORS has over 11,000 members, serving home buyers and home sellers in two New Jersey counties: 1) Monmouth County, and 2) Ocean County.

The second largest MLS in New Jersey is the Garden State MLS. The Garden State MLS - established in 2010 - is the 89th largest MLS in the United States. Based in Parsippany, New Jersey, serving ten New Jersey counties, the Garden State MLS typically has nearly 19,000 real estate listings to choose from.

Founded in 1908, the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges became the National Association of Real Estate Boards eight years later, in 1916. By 1972, the National Association of Real Estate Boards officially became the National Association of REALTORS, the NAR.?

Of note, the National Association of REALTORS is entirely distinct from, and independent of, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers - NAREB.?

Founded in 1947 in Tampa, Florida, members of the NAREB would be REALTIST members, not REALTORS.

The NAREB is the oldest minority business association in the United States. The NAREB functions as an equal opportunity and civil rights advocacy organization…focusing their efforts on advancing the interests of African-American real estate professionals, consumers, and neighborhoods.?

Headquartered in Maryland, the establishment of the NAREB goes all the way back to early-day efforts which were then undertaken by Black real estate professionals who had a goal to form their own real estate trade group. Incentivized to do so due to Black real estate professionals' then-exclusion from NAR membership, due to race.

The first NAREB convention was held in New Jersey. In Atlantic City. In 1948.

Today, the National Association of REALTORS governs - and establishes policies for - most of the multiple listing services in the United States. NAR members belong to local real estate boards and associations which are strewn throughout the United States; of which there are about 1,600.

NAR members are REALTORS. With over 1.5 million members, the NAR is the largest trade association in the United States.