Ventura County Regional Data Share Abruptly Cancels Agreement with California Regional MLS

SAN DIMAS, CALIFORNIA, June 8th, 2016 – On Monday, June 6th, California Regional MLS (CRMLS) received notice from Ventura County Regional Data Share (VCRDS) of their intent to cancel their data share agreement with CRMLS. The communication came as a shock to CRMLS, as it was concurrent with VCRDS’s widely circulated press release making the same announcement. CRMLS had no knowledge of VCRDS’s intent to cancel prior to Monday at the time of the press release.

VCRDS cited an “unexpected $25,000 cost” of reformatting data as its reason for cutting off the data share agreement. The data reformatting that was undertaken by CRMLS is required to meet the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR) mandated RESO compliance, effective July 1st, 2016. CRMLS provided notice to VCRDS on March 11th, 2016 of our server move, and has issued three additional notices since, specifying the need to transfer to the new system. At no time in the past three months has VCRDS informed CRMLS of any challenges faced by VCRDS resulting from the NAR mandate. And as we have had no communication from VCRDS as to their difficulties in meeting the deadline to move to our compliant server, we have had no opportunity to help them mitigate costs or difficulties in making the move.

We can only assume that the $25,000 cost to reformat the data is being assessed by the MLS vendor chosen by VCRDS. CRMLS has assisted other Associations with CRMLS data share agreements in negotiating lower pricing for data reformatting, but was not afforded any such chance by VCRDS. In fact, as part of our move to the new standards, CRMLS provided the primary mapping document that all of our data share partners would need to update their current mapping.

VCRDS entered into their data share agreement with CRMLS in January, 2015, at which time CRMLS applied considerable resources to the transition and the two organizations have maintained a successful partnership since. Even Mark Chacon, President for the Ventura County Coastal Association of REALTORS acknowledges that the partnership with CRMLS: “has been beneficial to our members and to area homebuyers and sellers…” The end of the agreement will effect nearly 85,000 brokers and agents throughout the state, effectively cutting off access to listing data between most of Ventura County and the rest of CRMLS’s substantial network across California. Tom Berge Jr., Chairman of the Board for CRMLS states “It is unfortunate that the organizations that make up VCRDS have decided to move in this direction, and without input from CRMLS. Standardization of data is important for our future as REALTORS and organizations who are not capable of handling the transition will face even greater hardships in the very near future. There are a large number of national initiatives that are being talked about and have direct effect on local MLS’s. CRMLS believes strongly in those efforts and will gladly help any MLS in the state to bridge those challenges!”

About California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS)
California Regional MLS is the nation’s largest and most recognized subscriber-based MLS, dedicated to servicing nearly 80,000 real estate professionals from 33 Associations, 3 Boards of REALTORS® and 1 MLS. CRMLS is an industry powerhouse and thrives on providing the most relevant products and services to its subscribers. For more information on CRMLS visit www.crmls.org.

About Ventura County Regional Data Share (VCRDS)
Ventura County Regional Data Share is a data share between Ventura County Association of REALTORS® and Conejo Simi Moorpark Association of REALTORS®, with approximately 4,500 subscribers covering most of Ventura County.