In an exclusive May 30th Realty Times interview, Jay Huffman, Chairman and CEO of MLS of Northern Illinois, announced that his organization was anchoring the formation of the Real Estate Information Business Group (REBIG). While this news came without much special fanfare, those with a nose for MLS intrigue sensed that everything about REBIG was bound to be big.

REBIG is a for-profit data brokering service composed of leading MLSs. Jay Huffman is the nationally recognized leader of America’s largest MLS, with 32,000 members. The other three charter REBIG partners ranked among the Top Ten MLSs, and the combined membership of all four was 100, 000. The consultant responsible for REBIG’s unusually secretive development is one of the biggest hitters in the property information servicing industry, - the other half of Mr. and Mrs. Jay Huffman, Brenda Krueger Huffman.

Considering the neighborhood, this enterprise definitely seems out of place. While the residential brokerage community has come a long way in a few short years, “progressive” isn’t yet the definition that you’d automatically associate with this profession’s character. It is important to remember that as recently as 1995, NAR continued to reinforce a siege mentality with its “circle the wagons to protect our data” approach. Even today, distribution of MLS data outside the traditional confines of the broker arena is considered a sacrilege by many of the Association’s rank and file.

Contrary to the history espoused by the revisionists among us, this is not the first time that an initiative to liberate MLS data has faced the cold, cruel light of day.

During the advent of our electronic age, the Realtor community fought off two hostile attempts to satisfy non-broker data demand. In fact, a defensive strategy developed to combat one such threat that arose in the early ‘90s purportedly triggered a noticeable nationwide increase in reports of prowling "lions over the hill." In the face of this hysteria, who could have imagined that a mere five years later, even the biggest MLS operators would be standing in line, alms cups extended, eager to take their cut of the national listing Website dole? With local leaders extolling the virtues of these windfall profits while totally ignoring the heresy that this direct data delivery to the consumer represented, the long, slow slide into the acceptance of “MLS data as just another commodity” had officially begun.

Realtors who once viewed their dotcom namesake as an undeniable threat to their very existence were now suffering collective depression as they faced the possibility of the ultimate demise of the monstrous cash cow they themselves had created. Time heals all wounds, doesn't it?

The next attempt to establish a national repository for MLS data compilation and redistribution was initiated by the AVM crowd, a newly evolving branch of the appraisal industry, at the behest of the national mortgage bankers. The pressure from the big mortgage underwriters to automate the lending process was intense. Driven by a decade’s worth of global go-go economics, a solution that would enhance efficiency and lower costs was the order of the day.

So, in 1998, when a consortium of renowned appraisal company executives brought a dozen leaders from the country’s largest MLS organizations to the table to present their plan for a data cooperative, all in attendance seemed aware that the threat of failure far outweighed the potential for success. Still they came, driven perhaps by an optimism that someday, somehow, an MLS data access arrangement would finally be attainable. To everyone’s surprise, the MLS leaders in attendance clearly recognized the opportunity at hand and, subject to their directors’ approval, agreed to move forward. By the time the MLS chieftains returned home for their directors’ confirmation, however, the heady air of achievement that permeated the Dallas conference room was gone, and support for the initiative withered quickly.

What seemed very reasonable to those who envisioned a solution quickly became the primary reason why the solution was unacceptable. At the post mortem, you had to look no further than the identity of those who initially motivated the proposal. After all, the same national lenders who sponsored the participation of the national appraisal groups were often demonized by the Realtor community for their none-too-subtle plans to seize control of the property transaction process. The paranoia of the stalking lion emerged once more.

Now, four years later, we have come full circle to the latest announcements made by Jay and Brenda Huffman. As consummate professionals with forty years of combined experience in a business that often defies logic, it’s not difficult to understand why they would want to avoid comparisons of REBIG with the failed initiatives of the past. Although, when cornered, they are prepared to concede that REBIG will serve as a national MLS data repository, facilitating this data’s delivery for non-brokerage applications, they would much rather focus on this venture’s more esoteric objectives, such as the implementation of innovative business principles and practices within a “trickle-down” structure that begins with the MLS and ends with the broker.

But try as they may, no matter how you dress this concept, at the end of the day, there will always be those in favor and those opposed. In this instance, the success or failure of this initiative may well depend on which camp clamors the loudest.

Proponents of non-broker access to MLS data should feel fortunate that the Huffmans have assumed leadership of this latest campaign. They have accepted this unholy challenge without delusion, fully cognizant of the litany of failed attempts that have preceded them. Those who wish them success would be well advised, at least for the time being, to reserve judgment on the strategies they employ to achieve the goal if we want to prevent history from repeating itself.

After all, cycles can be broken, can’t they?