VAN NUYS – The association representing San Fernando and Santa Clarita valley real estate agents recently announced a partnership that creates the nation's second-largest multiple listing service.
The agreement between the Van Nuys-based Southland Regional Association of Realtors and the Southern California Multiple Listing Service creates an MLS with 55,000 members, the two groups said.
The Southland group currently operates CRIS-Net Regional MLS, which serves Ventura County and the two valleys in northern Los Angeles County and has 15,000 subscribers.
SoCalMLS has 40,000 subscribers.
The new arrangement should offer more choice for agents, buyers and sellers.
“What we've found in recent years is agents are working with clients from much farther away from their home or farm area and clients are asking for information (about properties) that are farther away,” said Jim Link, the Southland association's executive vice president.
The new affiliation covers Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Creating wider-ranging MLS databases of properties for sale and other information is part of an industry trend.
Steve White, president of the Southland association, said the group surveyed its members last year and one request was an MLS with broader coverage.
This arrangement exposes Southland members and their clients listing to 40,000 more agents, he said.
“We had two objectives in looking for a new multiple listing service provider. One was to provide our members with state-of-the-art technology. The second was to expand our members' access to information so they can better serve their clients.”
A CRIS-Net subscription costs about $25 a month, he said, and the new rate will be slightly higher. But agents who subscribed to the two services will save money.
Russ Bergeron, chief executive officer of SoCalMLS, said combining the two services gives agents, buyers and sellers access to a deeper data pool.
“What's happened is that the brokerages are getting bigger and we (both) serve a lot of the same customers. It makes it easier for their agents to only have to be a member of one MLS,” he said.
The nation's biggest listing service is the Metropolitan Regional Information System, which covers the Washington, D.C., area and most of Maryland and Virginia.
