Disrupt MLS — Removing the Multiple Listing System — unleashing data onto OCEAN Market

Disrupt MLS is a project that received grant funding from the OCEAN DAO in Round 9. It aims to compete with and ultimately disrupt the multiple listing service (MLS) as it exists today. How? By creating a better, global option.

The MLS creates value by creating a centralized, standardized database for home listing data.

Home Buyers —
Pros: Have a data base they can query against based on location giving them the most option and most viable data for finding high-value investments like homes. Without this aggregation a homebuyers options would be limited to word of mouth, their immediate neighborhood, etc.
Cons: One misses out on hot deals like For Sale By Owner (FSBO) listings, who are more likely to be forgiving with price, for any number of reasons — chief of which being the desire to not pay the ~6% commission to agents in the closing costs.

Sellers —
Pros: Can cast the most wide net for finding a buyer by using the MLS system and its captive audience.
Cons: Due to exclusivity agreements signed with agents for even being listed through the MLS, they are locked in to a system where they have to pay~6% of purchase price in commissions upon close. Sellers who opt to not sell through the MLS (FSBO) are likely to have considerably less traffic toward their listing and may be stuck with their listing for much longer.

Agents —
Pros: Participating in an established system (as boom and bust as it is), where an agent plays a rigid role around the buying and selling of homes in the real estate market. The market is captive and there is no real competition other than with other agents for the listing inventory on the market. The MLS takes an agents individual listings makes them available to a wider audience making it more likely they will close on a listing they are representing.
Cons: There are monthly & one-time subscription fees associated with the MLS.

Wholesalers/investors —
Pros: These power users can scour for listings across the country (US).
Cons: It is useless when searching for distressed properties that have been abandoned. The MLS is not a global system so real estate investment abroad takes connections and feet on the ground to even see inventory. There is considerably more work involved to find FSBO listings, which are considered especially valuable to this audience.

DataBuyers/Publishers —
Pros: Sites like zillow.com & realtor.com thrive on more listings. The more listings they have the more inventory they have for ad placements. Right now they have a singular standardized source to ping to dynamically create pages from.
Cons: International listings, commercial and FSBO listings are a missed opportunity based on the MLS system as it exists right now.

Disrupt MLS (as it is known internally) seeks to create a platform that
1. is global in nature (solving the lack of centralized systems abroad)
2. present an alternative for FSBO listings
3. By doing so create an avenue for expansion for data buyers/ publishers mentioned above.
4. Create a low cost option for sellers who do not wish to leverage the traditional market structure

Disrupt MLS will do this by collecting listing data from sellers from all over the world and making it available for data buyers to purchase on OCEAN market.