Michael Wurzer The Real Estate Alchemy blog is well-named today, suggesting that their (Point2’s) “NLS” (national listing system) software is the solution to the DOJ lawsuit against the NAR. The only reason Point2’s software would solve the DOJ lawsuit is because the listings would no longer be aggregated, instead they would be here and there but all of them would not be anywhere. Of course, if the listings are no longer aggregated, searching wouldn’t be very effective, but at least the DOJ lawsuit would be resolved. On the other hand, if the listings are all aggregated somewhere, the DOJ’s complaints would resurface with Point2 and its members as the target instead of the NAR.
The DOJ lawsuit exists because MLS members have agreed to share listings with each other on certain terms, and the DOJ objects to those terms. However, the terms of that agreement are what allow for the aggregation in the first instance. You cannot have one without the other. It isn’t by magic or alchemy that competing brokers have agreed to share their listings, but rather through the process that is the MLS. As I’ve written before, MLS is much more than technology and understanding that just might be the difference between your being sold lead when you think you’re getting gold.
Follow-up: related link from FoREM.
Update: Jay Thompson weighs in, too.