David Charron: How MLSs can stay relevant before the market moves around them

The executives and leaders from across the MLS space agree that their industry is at a pivotal moment, where the decisions they make today will shape not only the future of the MLS, but potentially how homes are bought and sold in the U.S. for generations to come. According to David Charron, the former chief strategy officer at Bright MLS, who now serves as an industry consultant, this means that MLS leaders must create the future by advancing despite the risks.“One question that sits beneath almost every conversation at this conference is: Are we still relevant?” Charron said to attendees of the Council of MLS’s (CMLS) Open House conference Thursday morning. “Relevance is not permanent. It is not earned by defending the structure we inherited. It is earned by deciding what role we intend to play in the market ahead. Our task is to decide whether the MLS remains the market’s trusted source of information, through operation and accountability or becomes a legacy institution that brokers and tech partners learn to work around.” Budgets are the beginning Charron said one place these leaders can begin inciting change is in their annual budgets, which many will begin reviewing in the co...