ITSO firmly believes that Ontarians should have access to all the MLS® listing content in the province. It isn’t a matter of “who has the most” since most of the data is not good enough, - even 99% of the data does not help the consumer if the home they wanted is within that missing 1%. ITSO believes that anything less than 100% is a failure to all stakeholders.
Consumers need this information to make an informed decision. REALTORS® need this information to fulfill their fiduciary duties to their clients and serve them to the standard they require.
ITSO wants to solve that problem. We have 21 Member Associations directly sharing our MLS® System, and we have coordinated an integrated access for an additional 6 associations. Users of the ITSO MLS® System have access to MLS® listing content from our 21 Member Associations as well as the listing content from the REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington, the Sudbury Real Estate Board, and the Ottawa Real Estate Board, the Renfrew County Real Estate Board, the Cornwall and District Real Estate Board, and the Rideau St. Lawrence Real Estate Board. That results in members being able to access the MLS® listing content from 27 out of the 37 real estate associations in Ontario representing 72.9% of Ontario.
Real estate associations do not have to join ITSO as a member in order to share MLS® Listing content. ITSO has proven its willingness to find solutions to provide greater access to MLS® listing content at no additional cost to REALTORS®. We remain willing to work with any other association in support of providing consumers and REALTORS® with the standard of service they deserve. We can do this in a secure way that will protect existing ownership rights in MLS® listing content.
MLS® Systems were originally created as cooperative systems between real estate Brokerages. We believe that as an MLS® System provider, we have an obligation to all Brokerages and REALTORS® throughout Ontario to ensure all MLS® System providers cooperate with one another. All we need is cooperation from the other real estate associations to make this a reality.
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