Open Real EstateWhat a national listing database would send appraisers, and what it has not decided

The founders also argue in terms of valuation data. Their FAQ says inventory that is marketed privately “can also cause a breakdown in the aggregation of data on home pricing and sales,” and NAR’s account of the launch says the coalition sees “downstream consequences” for banking, appraisal and insurance companies. Keller Williams founder Gary Keller said in a May video that private listings could make the MLS “the market of last resort, the place where properties go after everything else has failed.” NAR reported that Pareja, asked on its Change Agents podcast what happens when values are uncertain, answered: “When you’re not sure what stuff’s worth, guess what financing looks like? It looks like 70% [loan-to-value], 60% LTV, 50% LTV.” Jessica Edgerton, chief executive of the Council of Multiple Listing Services, told HousingWire the council wants to collaborate to “support the comprehensive, reliable data that our banking and lending institutions depend on.”

The Law and Regulation Committee of ARELLO, the association of state real estate license regulators, compared about 10 million home sales from January 2024 to June 2026 with an automated valuation estimate of each home’s expected price. MLS listings sold 0.62% above expected in 2024 and 0.95% above in 2025. Against that MLS baseline, private listings sold below and Coming Soon listings sold above. ARELLO took no position on private listings and wrote that its neighborhood figures show an association, not discrimination or causation. A 2025 Bright MLS study of about 100,000 Mid-Atlantic sales reached a different result for office exclusives: “whether or not a home was pre-marketed as an office exclusive has no impact on the close price.” ARELLO’s comparison rests on AVM estimates rather than appraised values.

Open Real Estate was announced six days before UAD 3.6 becomes mandatory on November 2. The redesigned report replaces much free text with structured choices about condition, quality and features, and appraisers often check those choices for comparables against listing photos. HousingWire reported on October 23 that some MLSs, including CRMLS and Canopy MLS, and the Flexmls platform have added privacy controls for sold-property photos. Virginia appraiser Desiree Mehbod told HousingWire, “If a listing agent wipes out the interior photos and floor plans the second a house sells, we’re left flying blind.” Cotality’s chief valuation officer, Shawn Telford, said that without enough information an appraiser “may not be able to form a credible opinion.”

The Council of Multiple Listing Services told HousingWire that MLSs can take interior photos off public display after a sale while keeping them in the historical record for authorized uses such as appraisal, and that it is writing best-practice guidance. Florida appraiser Frank Gregoire said he bases his fee on the time an assignment takes and would charge more when he has to track down information. Open Real Estate has published nothing on how long it keeps photos and floor plans, or who can see them after a sale.

Listings stay the property of the listing broker. Pareja told HousingWire that aggregated data will be sold and the money shared equally per listing, so a brokerage with 100 listings earns the same per listing as one with 10,000: “Not only do we want to democratize the data, we want to democratize the monetization.” Real REMAX chief executive Tamir Poleg said the founders will fund the effort until it brings in revenue. No buyer, price or license has been named. In a HousingWire column, Darryl Davis noted that data licensing helps fund local MLSs today, and that this revenue could move to Open Real Estate members if the database becomes the first stop for data buyers.

Compass closed its purchase of Anywhere Real Estate in January, and Real closed its purchase of RE/MAX in August. Zillow loosened its Listing Access Standards in March so that listings no longer need to be in an MLS to appear on Zillow, as long as they are broadly accessible to the public. In October, CRMLS asked a federal court in New York to declare its cooperation rules lawful, Compass sued CRMLS in California, six other MLSs filed a separate suit against Compass in New York, and OneKey MLS joined the CRMLS case. Keller Williams and HomeServices also adopted Cotality’s broker-controlled listing platform, BLX, in May; it is a separate product.