Playmakers with Andrew Flachner

When four of real estate’s fiercest competitors (AGNT, Keller Williams, HomeServices, and Real REMAX) back the same initiative, it’s worth paying attention. This week’s launch of Open Real Estate puts listing transparency, private listing networks, and the future of the MLS front and center.

In this special episode of the Playmakers Podcast, host Andrew Flachner, CEO of RealScout, goes behind the scenes with the leaders building and backing it: Leo Pareja (AGNT), James Dwiggins (NextHome), Tamir Poleg (Real), Chris Kelly (HomeServices), Chris Czarnecki and Jason Abrams (Keller Williams), Bess Freedman (Brown Harris Stevens), OB Jacobi (Windermere), Anthony Lamacchia (Lamacchia Realty), and Michelle Harrington (First Team Real Estate).

This isn’t a press release read back to you. Andrew presses on the hard questions (who pays for it, whether it competes with MLSs, whether data has to flow both ways) and gets candid answers, including where the rules are still being written.

What you’ll hear in this episode:
  • What Open Real Estate actually is
  • How “participant view” and “market view” work
  • Why transparent listing data underpins appraisals, comps, and the 30-year mortgage
  • Michelle Harrington’s listing-table pitch
  • Bess Freedman on why the “seller choice” argument is manufactured
  • Why hiding days on market and price history hurts buyers
  • How walled gardens could squeeze out the next Real or eXp before it starts
  • Who’s funding Open Real Estate now, and how agents and brokers could share in data monetization later
If you’re an agent, team leader, or brokerage executive trying to make sense of the private listing debate, this is the clearest picture yet of where the industry is headed (and what to tell your sellers).

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
03:04 James Dwiggins (NextHome): Why Open Listings Keep 3% Down Possible
08:00 Is Compass Still Invited? Seller Choice and the MLS Question
13:28 Tamir Poleg (Real): Why Buyers Abroad Have It So Much Worse
18:01 Participant View vs. Public: How "Private" Listings Work in ORE
21:19 Michelle Harrington (First Team): Maximum Exposure Wins the Listing
25:28 Bess Freedman (Brown Harris Stevens): "Seller Choice" Is a Myth
31:59 Why the Founding Four Came Together Now (16–17% of GDP at Stake)
37:14 The Potluck Problem: Showing Up With Only a Fork
38:54 Anthony Lamacchia: "Complete and Radical Transparency"
41:43 Keller Williams Leadership on "Seller Informed Choice"
49:03 OB Jacobi (Windermere): What the Pacific Northwest Got Right
54:22 Leo Pareja (AGNT): How Open Data Keeps Mortgage Rates Low
58:22 Who Pays for Open Real Estate (and How It Makes Money)
1:05:25 Outro

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🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewflachner/

What is Playmakers with Andrew Flachner?

Playmakers gets inside the minds—and moves—of the people shaping the future of real estate. Hosted by Andrew Flachner, co-founder of RealScout and a trusted interviewer of top industry leaders, the show features unfiltered conversations with the executives, entrepreneurs, and dealmakers behind real estate’s biggest shifts.