Appraisers need complete MLS data to value homes accurately for mortgages and cash sales. If the MLS fragments and properties move to private databases, appraisals become less reliable, hurting buyers and sellers who depend on fair market valuations.
Now there's another reason to consider keeping the clear cooperation policy in some format. And that is for the accuracy of our appraisal data. One thing many REALTORS® don't know is that the appraiser who goes out on behalf of the mortgage lender, if there's a mortgage, or on behalf of the buyer, if they want an appraisal anyway in a cash purchase, is that the appraiser is going to go to the MLS to pull the comparable sale data so they can provide an accurate opinion of value. If the MLS becomes a shell of itself and only has some properties, but the other ones are held in certain companies, it's going to become really hard for appraisers to evaluate and get the numbers right. And that really matters to the consumer public. So do appraisers want to give a number that makes the consumer happy? Well, they don't really care about the consumer's happiness. They care about the accuracy of the data and the defense that they can make for their opinion of value. I personally want my appraisers to have the best possible data set, and so do my buyers, and frankly, so do my sellers.
