Quick Rant About Denver and Northern Colorado MLS

[Dan Mackin]

There have been some potential MLS modifications happening around the Denver area. Basically we have a situation where the north side of town has two overlapping MLS systems. The Denver one (reColorado) and the Northern Colorado one (IRES). For a while this wasn't a major problem due to there being a somewhat noticeable separation between the two areas, but that is no longer the case. Now in many cases you will find two MLS entries for the same property. One from the north and one from Denver. It was a bit annoying, but tolerable.

Recently the Denver MLS made an offer to purchase the northern one so that the system could be all together. The offer was declined. Now the Denver side has announced that they are pulling out of the data agreement with the north. This means that anyone looking for homes in the mid zone (easily over 200k-300k people) will need to have a search set up for both MLS systems. This means they will get plenty of duplicates, have to reference two different lists and just deal with plenty more confusion.

There are opinions of course that the sale would lead to a monopoly on the MLS which could increase subscription costs, but as national systems are forming this to me is a farce. Yes, prices may have increased a bit, but the system as a whole would work much better for those using it. Data sharing is never perfect due to how many fields can exist, but this lack of agreement to consolidate into one system is BS. I am excited to see what comes from the national side of things because there is progress in this industry that is needed and it is finally coming along.

Rant over for the moment.

@Mindy Jensen looks like I'll finally have to join you with an IRES subscription for now.