A newly proposed settlement between the Department of Justice and the National Association of Releators is aimed at opening MLS access to internet-based realtors who do not have fixed office locations with NAR approved brokers. The MLS stands for Mulitple Listing Service and is a closed database of all housies listed for sale by NAR realtors. The MLS has long been the secret weapon of the NAR in maintaining their competitve advantage against internet-based realtors.
By controlling access to their prized database of homes for sale, the NAR has been able to maintain a monopoly over housing data on the internet. Any would-be realtor would be well advised to join the NAR (or an NAR approved brokerage) simply for access to this database. The reaching of this settlement comes at a time when the MLS is starting to be seriously threatened by open web 2.0 sites such as Zillow, Trulia and Redfin.
The entire wording of the settlement can be found on the DoJ website here:
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/reports/223094.htm