Big MLS Shakeup Coming

As of right now, most property listings on the MLS anywhere in Brevard County are visible to any agent or consumer who logs onto BrevardMLS.com to search. It has been this way for as long as the MLS has been available online. When I checked another source this morning, I found that there are three oceanfront condo listings in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral that do not appear on the local MLS but do appear on a distant MLS. How did that happen? Are the property owners aware that Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral agents who sell the vast majority of listings here aren't able to see or even know about their property for sale? These three are listed by out-of-town brokers in the Orlando area and posted on their MLS system but not our local MLS. Not good for the sellers. This glitch looks to become more common this summer.

Brevard County has, for some reason, two Realtor associations. We've always used the same MLS system and shared our listings with one another so that an agent member of the Melbourne association could easily see and show listings in Cocoa Beach just like a Cocoa Beach agent could see and show listings in the southern part of our county.

Unless some solution is reached in the next couple of months more Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral listings will disappear from BrevardMLS.com. It has always made sense to list with a local broker when trying to sell a property wherever that property is. Should our MLS become divided with some listings only showing up on a distant MLS, it will become crucial for sellers in Brevard County to ask their listing agent whether their listing will be on the local MLS. Exposure on another MLS can't hurt but, if that exposure means exclusion from BrevardMLS.com, for sellers anywhere in Brevard County and especially Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral, the impact could be costly. I'm hoping for an eleventh hour solution but it appears right now that the split is unavoidable. I will continue to post sales and listing stats for Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral should it become a reality. For me it just means more work. For property sellers, loss of local exposure could prove costly.

"When times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good, but what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. What works in the real world is cooperation."  _________Bill Clinton