DeCatsye will be retiring on Dec. 31, 2026, but before she goes, she is ensuring Canopy Real estate agent Association no longer manages Canopy MLS or relies on it economically.
- Increased scrutiny of Real estate agent membership requirements to access the MLS affected Canopy MLS's choice to invite non-Realtors as customers last fall.
- DeCatsye believes NAR is shifting liability to regional MLSs - however states that's "fine" provided the legal dangers of NAR's MLS policies and its handling of the commission claims.
In 2022, Anne Marie DeCatsye informed her Real estate agent association she would only remain on for five more years and presented the leadership group with a thought experiment: If the association and its multiple listing service passed away in five years, why would it take place?

The group concluded that the MLS would fail "because of the legal landscape and the danger from bigger companies beginning a national MLS, or the syndication websites doing it," DeCatsye informed Real Estate News in an exclusive interview.

"Why [would] the association close its doors? Because the MLS went away. That's not excellent. There requires to be worth in the association beyond the MLS, and we require to be able to articulate that value."

That awareness stimulated Canopy Real estate agent Association's change: Unlike the huge majority of its peers, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based association and its MLS would end up being independent of each other, and the MLS would welcome non-Realtors.

Two companies, 2 CEOs

"We have functionally and economically separated the MLS from the association," DeCatsye said. It's the kind of move some in the industry have been recommending over the last few years.

"Our association board of directors has absolutely nothing to do with MLS policy. The only thing they see are the minutes of the MLS board meetings and the financials as the moms and dad company."

Completing that separation means that each company will get its own CEO when DeCatsye leaves at the end of next year.

The association will continue to own the MLS, which DeCatsye sees no issue with, however she stresses that Real estate agent associations need to no longer control or be economically depending on an MLS.

"I'm amazed at the number of [associations that own an MLS] not just are relying on funds coming back to them from the MLS, however they likewise, one, think they are the MLS