MLS=More legal squabbling

They’re at it again. The Metro Board of Realtors, made up of the Fayetteville and Springdale boards, will meet Jan. 12 at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale.

Discussion will include whether to completely drop CARMLS — Central Arkansas Multiple Listing Services Inc. of Little Rock — as its network service provider for prospecting and presenting property. CARMLS representatives will be on hand to voice their unhappiness with the Rogers Board of Realtors’ recent decision to drop CARMLS and go back to a DOS-based Financial Business Systems network.

We hear CARMLS may already be planning legal action against the Rogers group, and most of the Metro board does not want to switch providers. But the flap has a group of agents ready for closure.

The Northwest Arkansas MLS LLC, made up of the Metro, Rogers and Bentonville-Bella Vista boards, agreed last spring to a contract with CARMLS. The majority of the Rogers board has used a loop hole to pull out of the agreement because they say the system is not user friendly.

Now CARMLS is upset because it could lose cost breaks it acquired by adding additional subscribers through the Northwest boards.