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Realtors discuss merging listings to compete with Internet rivals

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 16, 2006 at midnight

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The Colorado Association of Realtors plans to form a task force to study creating a "one-stop shopping" regional listings of houses for sale.

The idea is to combine a number of the estimated 16 MLS services in the state, such as Metrolist in Denver and Information and Real Estate Services. IRES serves northern Colorado cities such as Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley.

Consolidating MLS listings is a national trend and would help fend off competition from popular Web sites such as Google and Yahoo! offering -real estate listings.

Proponents say it saves Realtors money because they don't need to pay for several listing services. It also allows more Realtors from different areas to look at homes for sale, which is good for consumers.

The consolidation makes sense, but the listing services are owned by Realtor boards or associations, and they don't want to lose out on profits.

On Thursday, about 200 brokers representing the largest residential companies in the area met at an all-day conference at the Westin Westminster hotel to discuss consolidation.

The initial idea was to hold a preliminary meeting to discuss the potential of merging Metrolist with IRES, said Chuck Ochsner, who organized the meeting. Ochsner owns RE/MAX Alliance. Metrolist has about 18,000 members and IRES about 6,000.

Kit Cowperthwaite, an agent with Distinctive Properties and the incoming president of the Colorado Association of Realtors, suggested that the association form a task force to study creating a regional MLS.

"That received a huge, very positive reception," Cowperthwaite said. "That led me to believe, despite some dissidents in the past, we are all coming to recognize that we need a better space than the system we have in place now."

Ochsner said the vast majority of home buyers start their search by using the Internet.

"We have to be very sensitive to the fact that things like Google and Yahoo provide home buyers and sellers with a lot of information," Oschner said.

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