The Oakland Berkeley Association of Realtors (OBAR) has become the sole owner of East Bay Regional Data (EBRD), a subscriber-based MLS.
“It’s been a very smooth process,” said DaVina Lara, 51, managing CEO of EBRD and current CEO of OBAR. “[EBRD] has been a regional MLS for quite sometime and we just realized the regional structure wasn’t working anymore.” Upon coming to that conclusion, the three associations, Oakland Berkeley, Alameda and Delta, came to a buyout agreement.
What started with conversations in November of 2015 will be finalized in September of this year. OBAR has been acting in managerial responsibilities since April 1.
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Gustavo Rodriguez will relocate from Chihuahua, Mexico, to the Bay Area to step in as director of operations.
Troy Staten, EBRD board chairman, said that there would no changes to the current MLS operating system.
The front end will remain the same and the same services will be provided. As far as what to expect down the road, Staten pointed out one trend he doesn’t foresee stopping anytime soon.
“I think that’s more of an industry-wide thing,” he said. “I think you’re going to keep seeing consolidation in the MLS’.”
As far as changes down the road to MLS, Staten agreed that it’s really sort of a race to see who can streamline it to mobile services first. One problem that is unavoidable is compressing the amount of MLS data to mobile format.
“Part of the problem is with our MLS there is so much data there, how do you say what’s important and whats not on my two-inch by four-inch screen,” he said. ”
East Bay Regional Data was founded in 1991. It serves 3,000 brokers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
