An explosive period for Denver’s multiple listing service (MLS) has come to an end, but an even more controversial one might be beginning.
REcolorado announced on Friday that its sale to the Joseph Burks-owned entity MAZL has been finalized, three months after the two Realtor associations that previously owned the MLS fired the board of directors over an alleged breach of a confidentiality agreement.
“We are committed to ensuring that REcolorado not only remains the foundation of Colorado’s real estate community but continues to set the standard for excellence and innovation as a subscriber-focused MLS,” Burks said in a statement.
The Denver Metro Association of Realtors (DMAR) and South Metro Denver Realtors Association (SMDRA) were the majority shareholders prior to the sale to Burks and MAZL. They began shopping REcolorado at the beginning of the year.
One of the interest parties they negotiated with was the existing board of directors, who in February believed they had a handshake deal to acquire the MLS. But DMAR and SMDRA abruptly announced in June that it was selling to Burks, which came as a shock to the board.
After news of the sale leaked to the real estate blog Vendor Alley, DMAR and SMDRA fired REcolorado’s board and leadership, claiming that the leak came from the board and that it constituted a breach of a confidentiality agreement.
Sources close to the situation told HousingWire in June that years of growing tension between the parties fueled DMAR and SMDRA’s decision to sell to Burks instead of the board. The board warned Denver-area agents that private ownership of REcolorado could have negative consequences, particularly with regard to data, which included the data being compromised.
While the chapter of this squabble has ended, Burks’s MAZL is already rankling Denver-area agents with its new participation agreement. In a post on his Substack, real estate consultant Rob Hahn posited that the participation agreement would be in violation of National Association of Realtors rules if REcolorado was still owned by DMAR and SMDRA.
The new agreement, which agents have until Oct. 9th to sign, transfers ownership of listings data from the listing agent to REcolorado itself. Further, the agreement states that agents will have to submit a written request to license their data, which the MLS can deny for any reason.
Listings data is the most valuable asset MLSs have and REcolorado’s must have been of interest to MAZL when deciding to purchase the MLS, but NAR’s MLS handbook says that an MLS is not allowed to deny or limit an agent’’s access to its own data.
“[The agreement] is not [data] ownership by the broker,” Hahn wrote. “I don’t know what that is, but it isn’t ownership. And then REcolorado has the nerve to tell a broker that it can audit the broker’s use of the broker’s own data? This is not an MLS. This is a boss. Your lord and master.”
It’s unclear how the new participation agreement could affect the data-sharing agreement REcolorado signed with four other MLSs in January. REcolorado did not respond to requests for comment on the participation agreement in time for publication.
While the terms of the new participation agreement have yet to fully circulate through the agent community in Denver, many agents expressed concern in June over the sale to MAZL and Burks, concerns that were also fueled over dramatic changes in how MLSs operate in relation to new rules related to NAR’s $418 million antitrust settlement.
The changes to the participation agreement may bring those concerns to a head.
“The problem is much deeper than this,” said Denver agent Dave Ness in an email to HousingWire. “The problem is that even if we wanted to change MLS’s we can’t. ReColorado is the only MLS in existence in the Greater Denver area. Pretty sure that would equal a monopoly in court. That’s the real issue.”