“We want to be a destination portal,” says Morgan Carey, CEO of Real Estate Webmasters (REW), which specializes in real estate websites, lead generation and CRM. Based in Nanaimo, B.C., REW has 100 employees around the world.

Carey says a global MLS has not been created until now “because it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to do.” It also requires a deep understanding of the real estate industry and building the infrastructure and the technology to handle listings.

As REW has revenues of more than $250 million since its 2004 founding, “we definitely have the chop to get into this.” He notes REW already obtains listings from its brokerage clients when it creates websites for them.

Addressing the international house-hunting challenge

Outside Canada and the U.S., the house-search process is difficult for international buyers trying to purchase a property abroad, as other countries do not have MLS equivalents, Carey says.

To date, the global MLS has signed up brokerages in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland, and several countries, including Japan, Philippines, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bali, Singapore and Malaysia, are expected to be onboarded soon.

The goal is to get 100 countries, Carey says, noting that many countries have real estate models that won’t be accommodated by the global MLS and others, like China, may block the site.

As of Jun. 23, Listings by Location had 1,690 mostly high-end listings in Canada, whereas Realtor.ca has more than 250,000 active listings. Canadian clients on the global MLS include MaxWell Realty Canada and Vantage West Realty in Kelowna, B.C.

“Canada has not been much of a focus for (REW) yet,” says Carey, noting that about 95 per cent of REW clients are in the U.S. 

The global MLS project began before the pandemic when REW partnered with the Government of Canada’s Business Scale-up Productivity project, which provided $5 million in matching funding, Carey says. It was on hold during the pandemic but picked up steam in recent months.

Creating a destination portal

Listings by Location started the ingestion process (obtaining and importing data) in May, and Carey says the site “probably won’t generate traffic for another six to nine months, at least, because we’re just building it out as a platform.”

In nine months, Carey hopes the platform will have brokerages from at least 15 countries participating and 250,000 listings. “The goal is to get to north of 100 million visitors after three years. Our target is Zillow-type traffic after three years.” 

Carey says the global MLS has received encouragement from industry leaders like Re/Max Europe CEO Michael Polzler, who told him, “I would love for you to build that,” while clients at other brokerages said, “Everyone wants it, but nobody’s done it.”

Re/Max in England, Wales and Ireland are among the international brokerages that have signed up for the global MLS.

Access to organic leads in exchange for listings

Brokerages on the portal will be given access to organic leads at no cost to them in exchange for their listings. “We give them their leads for free, and we promise that we always will,” he says.

In effect, the global MLS serves as a way for REW to build its international business, Carey says. “I need the listings in order to build websites,” he admits.

Every broker that provides listings to Listings by Location is a potential website customer, and “there is no revenue model for the MLS at this point.”

Compliance and regulatory considerations

Carey says the portal does not have to deal with real estate boards or associations. “Compliance with brokerages is beholden to the member, not to us. They need to know what their compliance regulations are in order to participate.”

He expects brokers will provide data in a compliant way, and “we have no intention of getting involved in the regulatory process.”

The portal uses the Real Estate Standards Organization’s (RESO) data dictionary.

Unlike Realtor.ca, Carey says Listings by Location can provide currency conversion and automatic translation. Listings by Location will also provide content about participating countries to help people decide where they want to live.

He notes that consumers have a very frustrating experience with existing portals, and “we want to provide a better user experience so that consumers will actually love us and use us.”

Catering to global house hunters

Carey acknowledges consumers in Canada looking for a house will use Realtor.ca or their agent’s website. “But if you’re in the U.K. and you’ve encountered our global portal already, say you’ve looked at properties in Spain, and you’re also interested in looking at properties in Canada, you might use our portal.”

The global MLS will use an artificial intelligence robot called REWPert that will leverage OpenAI and ChatGPT technologies. REWPert will build out page frameworks, research and assist with spelling and grammar, and rank pages in multiple languages.