Approval from Shareholder Boards is Next Step to Form
One MLS for Denver and Northern Colorado
IRES and REcolorado have taken another step toward creating a single MLS that will serve 26,000 real estate professionals in northern Colorado and the greater Denver Metro Area.
Lauren Hansen, CEO of IRES, and Kirby Slunaker, president and CEO of REcolorado, today announced the commitment between the two MLSs has now gone from a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU), as announced in September, to a binding merger agreement. The merger agreement has been signed by Hansen and Slunaker and has received approval from both the REcolorado Board of Directors and the IRES Board of Managers.
The next step needed is shareholder approval from the boards of the eight REALTOR Associations that are the owners of the two organizations.
REcolorado’s shareholders are Denver Metro Association of REALTORS, South Metro Denver REALTOR Association, and Aurora Association of REALTORS®. Shareholders of IRES are Boulder Area REALTOR® Association, Fort Collins Board of REALTORS®, Greeley Area REALTOR® Association, Longmont Association of REALTORS®, and Loveland Berthoud Association of REALTORS®. The shareholders are expected to review and vote on the merger agreement in the coming weeks.
“Thanks to the great work of the REcolorado and IRES shareholders and their boards, our vision of creating a future-focused MLS that serves REALTORS, Brokers and consumers along the Colorado Front Range is becoming a reality,” said Kirby Slunaker. “Colorado real estate professionals have told us they want the benefits that can only come from one MLS, which include the best products and services, faster pace of innovation, and world-class customer care.”
A merged MLS organization serving the Colorado Front Range would bring substantial benefits to Colorado real estate professionals, which would be passed on to consumers. Benefits include comprehensive data, a broad set of technology tools and services, and powerful consumer-facing websites.
“REALTORS, brokers, appraisers, and consumers deserve the most comprehensive,
accurate, and timely data possible, as well as technology tools they can use to serve the needs of well-informed buyers and sellers,” said Lauren Hansen. “Bringing our MLS organizations together is what brokers want and what the market needs.”
Chris Osborn, with Foster, Pepper PLLC, will continue to facilitate the merger process with REcolorado and IRES.
“We continue to move at a steady pace, thanks to open lines of communication between REcolorado and IRES, as well as a shared commitment to work in the best interest of REALTORS and Brokers,” said Chris Osborn. “I’m optimistic the merger agreement will receive shareholder approval, giving us the green light to consolidate these two companies. With approval from REcolorado’s three shareholder boards, as well as the IRES shareholder boards, the merger could close before the end of the year.”
With shareholder approval, the process of integrating the two MLS organizations, including the products and services, as well as all listing data, would begin shortly thereafter.
IRES MLS: Come Home to Colorado 
I hope I am wrong about this.
Progress . . but it has been painfully slow. For agents in the field and the general public the two separate and distinct systems continues to be a royal pain, and chasing more people to rely on RedFin, Zillow, and perhaps Realtor.com for comprehensive data.
I for one continue to BEG & PLEAD at least until we can do better, please turn on the data sharing band-aid!!! It is may not be perfect, but far better than the two systems in isolation.
So what is the plan & proposed timing? How & when can we the agents get a glimpse into future that so greatly impacts us EVERY DAY? For the “stakeholders” to properly get input from the constituents they represent there should be an option to review and comment PRIOR to the board approval! Can we please pickup the pace, and stop keeping the details so secret?
YES Robert! If they could just PLEASE turn on the data sharing again, it would resolve a ton of issues.
Thanks for weighing in, Sally. We know data sharing would make your life so much easier and hope to have it back up & running as soon as we can. No timeline yet, but we’ll keep you posted as best we can.
Total agreement to data sharing. I subscribe to both so I can serve my clients better but a seamless integration would be wonderful.
We hear you and are ready to start work on restoring data sharing as soon as it is available.
Robert:
Rest assured many details are being addressed behind the scenes by several parties – volunteers and paid professionals. Topics such as structure, ownership, governance, and most recently, tax considerations have been on the table, all of which takes time.
Yes, data sharing is on the horizon. We don’t have a timeline, but we know it is important to real estate professionals, especially those that straddle both markets. We will restore it as quickly as we are able.
Timing? We hope to have the merger closed by the end of this year if the shareholders of REcolorado and owners of IRES approve the merger. You are welcome to offer your input and opinions about the merger to Directors of your local Association/Board of REALTORS since they are the voting body to approve or deny the merger.
Our apologies for not providing more frequent communication about this process as it was unfolding. Both organizations and leadership have been operating under confidentiality agreements since sensitive information is being exchanged. Moving forward, we hope to increase the frequency of updates and offer more transparency about the process and steps before us. Stay tuned!
– Lauren Hansen, CEO
We IRESIS subscribers are hoping and praying that you keep our mls entry system. You have come so far in the past and it is so much easier to use than the REColorado system.
i am hoping the detailed historical data is not compromised as there will be fields that may not match up, as we need more than just the basic information and also what will the cost structure be.
We agree historical data as a priority, but have not addressed any specifics at this stage of the game so I am not able to offer any details.
Regarding fees, as it stands now, you can pay 2018 MLS fees either quarterly or annually and once the merger closes, MLS fees will be determined and accounts will be reconciled.
Stay tuned as more information unfolds.
At this point, please just get on with it. As an appraiser, it has been somewhat difficult to blend the data in overlying areas. Not a fan at all of the Matrix plat form, as a side note this is a Corelogic product as is REALIST, the also own Marshall and Swift….they seem to be the go to source for data, not a fan of one entity have that much control.
Thanks for posting, Collie.
We are making progress. Stay tuned!
If the two MLS sources combine, I hope they will have the wisdom to keep using the IRES site. It is much better and more user-friendly than the REColorado site, in particular the mapping program.
Klara:
Thanks for passing along your thoughts about the MLS systems. Stay tuned for more details as this process unfolds.