About us

CMLS is the trade association for Multiple Listing Services in North America.

We exist to champion our 230 member Multiple Listing Services and what they create every day: The world’s most accessible, efficient, and transparent housing market.

Read Our Bylaws

Why MLSs are important

MLSs ensure the housing market is accessible to all. People can see nearly all available homes for sale at any time without dependency on a single company or real estate professional. The doors to housing are always open to those who desire homeownership because the MLS exists.

MLSs deliver the efficiency needed for a healthy housing market by organizing and safeguarding housing market information, and by providing a bedrock of shared knowledge that makes it possible for consumers and real estate professionals to act with speed and confidence.

MLSs create the context people need to make informed housing decisions. While home buyers, home sellers, and real estate professionals in the rest of the world operate in shadowy uncertainty, those in North America can always get a clear answer to the question: “How’s the market”?

MLSs foster choice — between competitors, business models, and ways of pursuing the dream of homeownership. The American housing market is an open house where myriad businesses can engage in the practice of real estate without limitations.

Why we’re here

CMLS exists to support and strengthen these qualities by making sure that our members have a voice in housing discussions at a national level, fostering high standards or organizational excellence, and creating a vibrant professional community animated by a shared purpose.  