OneKey MLS Marks Five-Year Launch Anniversary: A Conversation with Board Chairman Mark Boyland

FARMINGDALE, NY—It was five years ago this month that OneKey MLS®, went live for the first time to more than 42,000 Realtor subscribers. Since that time, OneKey has grown and adapted to many social and economic changes and challenges, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began at the same time as its launch, as well as the radical changes that have transpired in the industry and in the diverse markets it serves.

In that short time, OneKey MLS has emerged as the go-to-location for essential data on the New York metro area and is an indispensable resource for real estate professionals and consumers across the region it serves—Long Island, Manhattan and the Hudson Valley.

OneKey, which was formed by the merger of the multiple listing services owned by the Long Island Board of Realtors and the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, went live to consumers in June 2020 and first offered more than 41,000 listings in 500 communities in the New York metro region.

Originally headed by CEO Jim Speer, OneKey’s current CEO Richard Haggerty was at first the president of OneKey, while serving as CEO of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors. He replaced Speer upon his retirement in September 2022.

To mark OneKey’s five-year milestone, Real Estate In-Depth reached out to longtime HGAR member Mark Boyland, who was one of OneKey MLS’s founding Board of Managers. Other HGAR members that served on the original OneKey MLS Board of Managers were Leah Caro, Nancy Kennedy and Renee Zurlo.

OneKey officials noted that Boyland, an Associate Broker with Keller Williams in Bedford, played a critical role in shaping OneKey’s vision and ensuring that it remains committed to integrity, service and innovation. He is the current chairperson of the OneKey MLS’ Board of Managers.

In addition to being a top performing Realtor, from 2007 to 2009, he served as President of the Multiple Listing Service and as Director of the National Association of Realtors. During his time as Director of the Hudson Gateway MLS—from 2009 to 2014—he traveled the US as a national real estate speaker and trained more than 1,500 real estate professionals to sell their clients’ properties in a challenging and shifting market.

Other HGAR members who currently serve on the OneKey MLS Board are Leah Caro of Park Sterling Realty of Bronxville; Pati Holmes of Julia B. Fee Sotheby International Realty of Rye and Mary Stetson of Stetson Real Estate of Mamaroneck.

The following are excerpts from Real Estate In-Depth’s conversation with OneKey MLS Board of Managers Chairman Boyland.

Real Estate In-Depth: Take us back five years ago and your feelings about helping launch OneKey MLS?

Boyland: It was very exciting to merge those two MLSs—Hudson Gateway and Long Island—it was a big deal. I think at the time when we merged, we became the fifth largest MLS... Back then, a good amount of my focus was on the public portal and there were a lot of discussions surrounding that. I was involved in everything including picking the name OneKey. We worked with consultants to determine the name, the mission and the vision and the public portal and how that was going to function and how that was going to be competitive beyond my real estate space. We just wanted to give as much value to our members as possible.

Real Estate In-Depth: What makes OneKey MLS an essential tool for real estate professionals?

Boyland: Any producing Realtor is on the system every single day. The obvious benefit is it allows us to search for real estate for them (buyers) and research data for them so that when they are making an offer on a property, we can provide them with a sense of value based on what is selling in the area and what is similar. On the listing side, the same thing, we are meeting with clients and we have to provide them with information to make good decisions on pricing their homes and the collective data showing months of supply, inventory, average median sale prices, days on market, list data and closed date. All those things, all that data is really important to educate our clients to make good decisions…

It's a big resource and just tapping into the data and having the listings are just one part of it. There is more to that because you have your IDX feeds. When I go back and think about the early days of Internet posting, when if you had to post a listing, you had to go on to individual websites to post the same data. Now, that data is fed into these marketing sites, your CMA software and other software programs automatically, so it eliminates a lot of data entry. And having it on (OneKey) MLS also helps the agents make sure that the data is correct because our membership is pretty keen….

We spend a significant amount of money to make sure that we have the best technology, a system that is reliable, moves fast and maintains accuracy. We also add on different products to the MLS to make our members more productive. For example, we have the showing service (Showing Time) that is tied in, which collectively saves our members thousands of hours each year as opposed to what they used to do which was call each other to book appointments.

Real Estate In-Depth: How does OneKey MLS promote fair housing and equitable access to information?

Boyland: The mere fact that anything that goes into the multiple listing service gets populated on thousands of different real estate websites and portals, whether they are broker-owned sites or third-party sites or agent-driven sites. That is full exposure to the entire market so there is no one that is not gaining access. No one is shut out. The challenge that we see in the marketplace is we do see some brokerages that are moving toward private networks or in-house listing systems and that is shutting people out because they don’t have access to that or are even aware that is an option to go that route. So, they are missing out on that real estate and it is also hurting the home seller because they may be under the impression that somehow there is a benefit to not exposing it (the listing) to the entire world, but in fact when you reduce the exposure of any product you are trying to sell, the value of that product is compromised.

Real Estate In-Depth: How does OneKey MLS help agents demonstrate their professionalism?

Boyland: Well, I think it goes to having that accurate data. Having the data to be able to go into a seller’s home or meet with a buyer and show them what is really happening in the market in real time adds trust and value to that agent and their client. The other part is that everybody is trying to make their listing as good as the next guy. So, there is competition there. I want to make sure my photos are better than the other agent, I want to make sure that the data is more accurate, the write-up is better, along with the attachments and floor plans. It raises, it elevates everybody’s professionalism because we are all trying to compete and look as good as the next person.

Real Estate In-Depth: What resources does OneKey MLS provide to help its customers stand out?

Boyland: We have a service called InfoSparks that is linked to the MLS that you can click on above any listing and it will pull up the stats for the town or municipality for that listing. So, you can see a chart and a graph and you can customize it based on bedrooms and baths and your style of home and price range. It has everything there from median average sale price, average pending price, how many new listings there are, closed sales, days on market, percent of list price, percent of original price, dollar volume. There are so many pieces of information but the cool thing with InfoSparks is you can send a live link to the report you created to your client, which updates automatically in real time. That’s huge…

The other thing we provide to agents is FastStats, which are static reports on the quarterly numbers for the markets. So, an agent can print these out—and they are in full color—or put them on an I-Pad and they can show these really nice reports with charts and graphs showing what is going on in the county to their clients. It is really impressive information.

Real Estate In-Depth: How does OneKey MLS align with the values of integrity, collaboration, and innovation?

Boyland: I would say that in terms of integrity, we are very focused on providing accurate data. The members make sure that the data is accurate whether they are putting something in or they are notifying the MLS that there is misinformation or a mistake. Collaboration is huge. Everyone has buyers that need something and we all collaborate. When you list something, my buyers have access to it and when I list something, your buyers have access to it. When I list something, I want your buyers to come so that collaboration means a better price and a quicker sale for my client. And, that is really what it is all about is that collaboration.

In terms of innovation, we are well aware that there are a lot of changes happening in the industry and in the tech space and we are constantly looking at new tools and new ways of doing things. We look at other MLSs across the country that are successful offering new technologies and strategies and we seriously consider those. And, if they seem like they will be a good fit for us here, we are going to roll those in.