Four residential real estate firms — Agnt Inc. (eXp Realty and NextHome), Home Services of America Inc., Keller Williams Realty LLC and Real ReMax Group — announced the formation of Open Real Estate, a national initiative to create a shared infrastructure for property listing data.
The industry’s answer to a fragmented listings market, Open Real Estate is designed to streamline how property listings flow across brokerages, multiple listing services (MLSs), real estate portals and other platforms, with the goal of making the housing market more transparent. The shared infrastructure of Open Real Estate’s technology platform will enable participating brokerages and agents to enter property listings, with distribution to MLSs, real estate portals, and other authorized recipients. The platform will make it easier for property information to flow, helping create a more complete and accessible marketplace.
In an open letter titled “Housing Markets Must Remain Open To All,” the founding members outlined a collective commitment to protecting seller choice, expanding buyer opportunity and promoting an open, competitive housing marketplace, stating, “We believe that access, information and transparency should be a benefit, not a barrier to anyone looking to purchase a home. Buyers deserve fair and comprehensive access to available housing information. It’s equally important that sellers have an honest understanding of how their homes are being marketed, who they are reaching and the opportunities they may gain or sacrifice when deciding how best to market their home for sale. A healthy market is one where sellers can make truly informed decisions, buyers have access to the broadest possible inventory, and success is determined by those who create the most value—not those who control the most information.”
For decades, shared listing systems have kept the U.S. housing market open, so that a buyer working with any agent could see most homes for sale and a seller’s home could reach the whole market. Today, more homes are being marketed privately, creating greater inconsistency in how listing information is made available and shared with buyers and the broader marketplace.
The shared listing platform is designed to work alongside MLSs, which play an essential role in establishing local listing rules and providing services to real estate professionals.
Open Real Estate invites every brokerage to join as a free participating member, so consumers have reliable, broad access to market inventory.
