DeCatsye will be retiring on Dec. 31, 2026, however before she goes, she is ensuring Canopy Real estate agent Association no longer controls Canopy MLS or relies on it economically.

- Increased analysis of Real estate agent membership requirements to access the MLS influenced Canopy MLS's decision to welcome non-Realtors as subscribers last fall.

- DeCatsye believes NAR is moving liability to regional MLSs - however states that's "fine" given the legal dangers of NAR's MLS policies and its handling of the commission suits.


In 2022, Anne Marie DeCatsye told her Real estate agent association she would just stay on for 5 more years and presented the leadership group with a thought experiment: If the association and its multiple listing service died in 5 years, why would it occur?

The group concluded that the MLS would stop working "because of the legal landscape and the hazard from larger companies starting a nationwide MLS, or the syndication sites doing it," DeCatsye informed Real Estate News in an exclusive interview.

"Why [would] the association close its doors? Because the MLS went away. That's bad. There requires to be worth in the association outside of the MLS, and we require to be able to articulate that worth."

That realization triggered Canopy Real estate agent Association's improvement: Unlike the vast majority of its peers, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based association and its MLS would end up being independent of each other, and the MLS would invite non-Realtors.

Two companies, 2 CEOs

"We have functionally and financially separated the MLS from the association," DeCatsye stated. It's the type of move some in the market have been suggesting over the last few years.

"Our association board of directors has nothing to do with MLS policy. The only thing they see are the minutes of the MLS board conferences and the financials as the parent organization."

Completing that separation implies that each company will get its own CEO when DeCatsye leaves at the end of next year.

The association will continue to own the MLS, which DeCatsye sees no problem with, however she highlights that Real estate agent associations need to no longer manage or be economically dependent on an MLS.

"I'm surprised at how numerous [associations that own an MLS] not only are counting on funds coming back to them from the MLS, but they likewise, one, believe they are the MLS; and 2, they see their worth as a Real estate agent association being the MLS, which kind of blows me away," DeCatsye said.

Membership mandates pose a 'liability risk'

DeCatsye started with Canopy Realtors as its in-house legal counsel in 2000 and became CEO in 2001. That legal training has imbued her point of view on how the association and its MLS should operate.

For example, in light of the Federal Trade Commission's stance versus anticompetitive connecting arrangements in the property industry, plus the recent flurry of antitrust lawsuits challenging the National Association of Realtors' three-way agreement and the requirement by many MLSs that customers be Real estate agent members, Canopy MLS chose to provide an MLS-only alternative at the end of last year - something other MLSs have actually also begun considering or implementing.

Mandating Real estate agent subscription to access the MLS is "a liability danger waiting to happen," DeCatsye said.

Canopy Real estate agents has about 14,000 members, and Canopy MLS has more than 22,000 subscribers; presently, only 125 approximately are "MLS-only" non-Realtor customers.

MLSs are more than 'just a service'

NAR has actually long characterized Realtor-affiliated MLSs as a service of their associations. By that step, associations have a right to require subscription to access the MLS. But DeCatsye challenge the concept that the MLS is a mere "service" and firmly insists the MLS "has actually grown up."

"When you add on the tools and the training and the technology and the data licensing and data integrity and all the things that we do on the MLS side that have absolutely nothing to do with the Real estate agent association, ... to say, 'Oh, it's just a service of the Real estate agent association' is a total injustice to what an MLS really does," she stated.

'Local discretion' shifts run the risk of to MLSs

Regarding NAR's effort to lessen the legal risks of its policies, DeCatsye believes the trade group is not being totally transparent about what that indicates for MLSs.

"I have actually heard [NAR CEO Nykia Wright] state 'de-risking our portfolio' numerous times, and after that she started saying 'that does not imply we're shifting the risk to the MLS' - and I don't think that's real," DeCatsye said.

Leaving policies to "regional discretion," such as the execution of NAR's delayed marketing exemption, immediately increases liability for regional companies, according to DeCatsye.

"It is being shifted to the local MLS, and if the MLS is owned by a Real estate agent association like ours, the whole company is at threat," she stated. Some MLSs have simply pulled out of executing the policy.

Time for NAR to hand off MLS policy oversight?

But DeCatsye states the liability shift is "great" by her, provided that NAR-driven policies were at the root of class-action lawsuits nationwide.

"I would rather stand on our own 2 feet and not be dependent on NAR MLS policy, because that is what got us all in difficulty," DeCatsye said.

She thinks it's time for another company to take the reins on MLS policy guideline or MLS best practices. That could be the Council of MLSs, the Real Estate Standards Organization, the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials, state genuine estate commissions, or some new or revamped entity.

"I sure would rather be controlled by our realty commission than the DOJ," she stated.

NAR lobbyists must have 'done more'

Echoing the sentiment of some large brokers and other market leaders, DeCatsye thinks NAR should have done a better task of dealing with the commissions lawsuits.

"If NAR's legislative group had done more to inform members of Congress about what was occurring, there might have been a federal legal intervention into a few of the claims that were attacking the market," she said.

"The settlement quantities are just mind-boggling, and I don't believe a lot of members of Congress have any idea."

Leaving 'Real estate agent' behind?

DeCatsye believes the day could come when Canopy Realtors will be Canopy Real Estate Professionals rather - but it's not what she's pressing for.

"My mommy was a Real estate agent," she stated. "I still securely think in the role of the Real estate agent. I believe in the Code of Ethics.