Zillow’s Samuelson: Undermining the MLS could bring regulators knocking

In Errol Samuelson’s view, the MLS industry is at a tragedy of the commons moment. “We have a cooperative where one person is acting in their own self interest and it could harm everybody else,” Samuelson, Zillow’s chief industry development officer told attendees of the Council of MLS’s (CMLS) Open House conference on Wednesday morning. Samuelson cited economist Elinor Ostrom, who found that when situations like this arise, either everyone must come together and agree to cooperate or the government will step in to regulate. Samuelson said no one wants that outcome, but he fears the industry is nearing that point, citing the House Judiciary subcommittee pressing Compass International Holdings and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) to explain their nationwide private listing network partnership, along with the litigation surrounding the industry. In Samuelson’s view the U.S.’s MLS system is the “envy of the world.” “It is the reason we have transparency and amazing liquidity. It engenders competition because consumers don’t feel obligated to work with a big brokerage just to see what is on the market and, as a seller, I can easily get my listing in front of every possible buyer,” Samue...