"We have met the enemy and he is us" ...Pogo

By: Saul Klein, CEO, Point2 Technologies Inc.
December 2011

When do we start? Some MLSs already have begun, so the answer is yesterday. The successful creation of MLS 5.0 will require vision, leadership, and courage. The technology is not the challenge -- people, organizations, their habits and models of the world are the challenge. The words of Peter Drucker, father of modern management, have never been more applicable: "Every organization has to be ready to abandon everything it does, to reinvent itself."

There will be controversy and debate between knowledgeable and well-intentioned people. Association and MLS leaders, staff and volunteers, brokers and agents must collaborate to create the MLS of the future; otherwise their MLS of the present will become a relic of a bygone era. Our industry is going through nothing less than a "Paradigm Shift" driven by technology and generational forces. As stated by Joel Barker, author of Future Edge, "When a paradigm shifts, everything goes back to zero". MLSs and Associations, large and small, rich and poor, must assist brokers in creating compelling arguments for membership and compelling arguments for consumers to use the services of real estate professionals.

MLS and the industry today can become the creators of the future instead of the victims of circumstance. Creating a future by design instead of a future by default requires the ability to deal with massive and increasing amounts of information in a rapidly-changing and participatory environment. The answer is not just an MLS, but the MLS of the future, MLS 5.0, which incorporates the consumer, and makes the REALTOR® a participant in the conversation, not just a cog in the transaction.

What is the alternative?

If we don't do it, the list of alternatives is growing: Craigslist, Google, and others, some not yet created, all in the spirit and built with the concepts, philosophies, and building blocks of Web 2.0 and putting property information in context for the consumer. For real estate professionals, now is the time to create your compelling argument for what you do and what you charge. The same holds true for MLS.

What's your opinion? Please write to thefutureofmls@point2.com.

Saul Klein is Senior Vice President, Point2, author of MLS 5.0 - The MLS of the Future Whitepaper, a licensed real estate broker in California for the past 33 years and 1993 President of the San Diego Association of REALTORS®.  Saul created NAR's e-PRO® Technology Certification Program in 2001 and NAR's Web 2.0 & Social Media Course in 2009. Saul has been providing strategic planning and leadership programs to the industry since 1994 and is a 1972 graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.