If you visit PhoenixMLS.com, or FreeMLS.com, you might think you’ve reached a Web site run by a true multiple listing service. According to Bob Bemis, CEO of the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, you would be wrong. Bemis is the interim president of the nw MLS Domains Association, a non-profit group of fifteen multiple listing services in the US, tasked with applying for a .mls top-level domain (TLD) on the Internet, that will be offered solely to legitimate MLSs.

“The problem we identified is that the term MLS is not trademarked in the U.S. – it can be used by anybody,” Bemis told us. “So, firms and companies not associated with a true MLS can use the name. “

Now ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has opened up a new TLD registration process, which has already spawned a dot-jobs initiative by the DirectEmployers Association. In late 2010 MLS Domains Association will apply for the dot-MLS.

Bemis has high hopes of their being successful with their application.

“The only grounds for denying our application would be if the term “MLS” were claimed as a legitimate identifier of another organization.”  There are two organizations that have those claims, however. The Major League Soccer association has assured Bemis and his group it has no intention of applying for the TLD and would not  challenge their application. The second, The Canadian Real Estate Association, is more of a concern in that Canada has MLSs as well. 

“We’re in the process of contacting them, and will solicit their support and allow them rights to use the .mls in Canada,” said Bemis. 

The question then becomes whether there is enough support among the 850 or so US MLSs. The MLS Domain Association is trying to make that determination right now through a survey, as well as a presentation at REIS, the Real Estate Information Symposium March 30-31, hosted by the Houston (TX) Association of Realtors.

Assuming that enough MLSs show interest, and ICANN approves the TLD application, the next step is to find paid staff that will screen domain applications. Bemis said that it might be subcontracted to GoDaddy or another similar registration vendor. While a typical domain fee, if not already spoken for, can be as law as $10, Bemis envisions some very large fees from this, especially if there were to be competing applications. This would set up a bidding war.

“Atlanta has two MLS,” he said. “If both applied there is an auction process. That could drive the price up into the hundreds or thousands of dollars.  In Southern California there are three large MLSs.” Bemis said that multiple MLS groups in one location would be welcome to work together if they wished.

What use is to be made of these .mls domains is entirely up to the MLSs that buy them, according to Bemis. They could be consumer-accessible, prompting home sales, or they could be private in-house information or training tools. The Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS,) Member brokers of The Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) * for example, might decide to solicit new agents through a site known as WorkForOurAZMLS brokerage*.mls, for example, or sell property focused on Maricopa County, as MaricopaHomes.MLS.

It’s very much in the beginning stages, as the MLS Domains Association doesn’t have the TLD approval, nor does it know how the various MLSs will respond. Right now, so much project participation is being solicited of the various MLSs, including NAR’s RPR (see CIR 11.05, March 11), the new NationalBLS API and Move.com’s new MLS search tool their real estate heads are probably spinning.

* Corrections thanks to Bob Bemis, in his comment.