Getting Started With MLS Consolidation

The 7 steps to an MLS consolidation:

1. SELF-EVALUATION

How do you stack up? What information is appropriate when considering your own scorecard? Know what to measure, including the overlap of subscribers, firms, and listings. What best practices matter most when considering your options, before making decisions and taking next steps? How do you compare in terms of products and services and other metrics that really matter to your members and subscribers?

2. MARKET ASSESSMENT

The market assessment requires objective, comparable quality market data and intelligence. This results in the efficiency of your market based on the amount of duplication, population densities, market maps, and relevant data that is not easily known. With this evidence, you will have what you need to make the very best directional decisions before deciding to proceed with a consolidation.

3. TRANSACTION OPTIONS

Time to evaluate all options available to you and your leadership.

4. FIRST MEETING

Once your organization decides to move to action, you will plan an agenda for a first meeting with your new potential business partners. This typically involves sharing certain information from the self-evaluations and market intel, as well as separate and joint visions about your collective future.

5. BUILDING TRUST

Know what it takes to design a future that everyone can believe in. What is the investment and timeline required to achieve your goals? Detail the new vision and confirm what can be done better together that you cannot do on your own. Pick the best products and services and start to design your new, bigger, and better MLS together.

6. DOCUMENTATION, SYSTEMS, AND STRUCTURE

The consultant, attorney for the process, financial advisors, and staff will document the relevant details and decisions from the task force including ownership, governance, structure, how the money flows, financial pro-forma, start-up capital required, business model, staffing, products/services, fees, timeline, and the transition plan post-merger.

7. THE CONSOLIDATION ITSELF

Time to pull the trigger. The transition and many tasks that will make the consolidation successful need to be addressed in the right order.