Beyond Borders: Merri Jo Cowen on the Future of MLS

From printed listing books to connected markets

Merri Jo Cowen has experienced the MLS industry’s transformation from printed listing books to digital property databases. In GDX Talks with Razan Mohamed, she considers what emerging real estate markets can learn from that history, and which stages they may now be able to bypass.

Countries building shared property infrastructure today do not need to retrace every technical step taken by established MLS markets. They can draw on existing technology and decades of operational experience. But Cowen is equally clear that the U.S. MLS model cannot simply be transplanted elsewhere. Local business practices, regulations and market expectations must shape the implementation.

The discussion connects her work at Stellar MLS and UCO with a wider aim: helping organizations develop reliable information systems and cooperate across borders.

Trust and education come before participation

A recurring concern is the hesitation to share listings. Cowen describes fears about losing clients or control of information, alongside confusion among consumers about how representation and access work. Technology alone cannot resolve those questions.

Through UCO, she sees a role for MLS experience in helping organizations establish shared databases, practical rules and a clearer understanding of cooperation. Education needs to reach brokers and consumers as well as the people operating the system.

Markets can begin with a dependable shared database, practical participation rules and a common understanding of how cooperation works. They do not need to adopt every feature of an established MLS model at once.

What international relationships can add

Cowen recalls the International MLS Forum in Paris as an early opportunity for Stellar’s team to explore international collaboration. Meeting brokers and association leaders from other countries helped them understand different market conditions and consider possible data-sharing relationships.

She links that curiosity to the work of Stellar MLS and its subsidiary UCO. Established organizations can share operational knowledge while learning what local participants need. A successful connection begins with that understanding, not simply with exporting an existing platform.

For brokers, these relationships can create access to authorized international inventory, stronger referral networks and a clearer path for serving clients interested in property abroad. Real value, however, depends on active relationships and on making the shared information useful within members’ existing workflows.

GDX as infrastructure for sharing by choice

Cowen distinguishes GDX from the idea of a single global MLS. GDX is infrastructure through which participating organizations can establish selected data-sharing relationships while retaining control over what they share and with whom.

A participant might begin with one relationship and expand after evaluating it. She also describes the possibility of sharing outward without accepting a feed whose quality does not meet local requirements. The decisions remain with the organizations involved.

Licensing, permissions and bilateral agreements remain essential. The technology enables exchange, but it does not replace the agreements governing how data may be accessed, displayed and used.

GDX is not currently a consumer search portal or a single place where users view all participating listings. Each organization receiving data determines how to display or provide it within its own systems.

Trusted data in the age of AI

The conversation turns to RESO standards as a practical foundation for moving information between systems. Common structures can reduce integration work. Cowen sees greater awareness of standards as part of helping emerging markets participate in international connections.

Cowen also discusses AI’s growing role in research, marketing and administrative workflows. It can accelerate initial research into unfamiliar markets, but its output still requires validation against reliable local sources.

She expects automation to take on more client communication, scheduling and follow-up activity, while real estate professionals continue to guide the transaction itself.

Local development, global opportunity

The discussion considers cooperation with government bodies in emerging markets, including the experience associated with ADRES in Abu Dhabi. Cowen sees potential for public records and organized industry information to complement one another, while recognizing that markets have developed through different histories.

Looking ahead, she imagines a wider network of property datasets with organizations choosing regional or international sharing relationships. More markets would first need to develop information they can contribute and the practices needed to maintain it.

Her long-term examples include professionals exploring property opportunities in other countries through familiar local systems. The larger opportunity is global, but the foundation remains local: trustworthy information, workable rules and relationships that turn data access into practical value.