For years, new construction has been an awkward fit in multiple listing services (MLS), according to Bill Gaul, CEO of Builders Update and chair of the RESO Data Dictionary New Construction Subcommittee. MLS data infrastructure was designed around resale transactions and was not originally built to reflect how builders manage and sell inventory. “It’s been a round peg trying to fit into a square hole in the MLS,” Gaul says.
The consequences are concrete. Agents routinely show buyers a listing found in the MLS, only to arrive at a development and discover not one home but fifteen nearly identical models. The listing represented a single unit; the reality is a sales operation with its own pricing strategy, customization options, and construction timeline. Agents who haven’t specialized in new construction can find that environment harder to navigate, and buyers end up confused.
Gaul spent roughly a year working through RESO’s subcommittee process to address basic terminology problems, such as inconsistent use of “under construction,” “to be built,” and “quick move-in” across systems. “It took me about a year of developing consensus among the group,” Gaul says. “We finally got it to where it’s usable for builders.”
One of the less-discussed reasons new construction is underrepresented in MLS data is that builders often have good business reasons to list selectively. When a builder lists a home in the MLS, they are typically required to report the sale price once it closes, and that disclosure can complicate pricing across a development with multiple similar units. Gaul compares it to a car dealership: if buyers could see exactly what the last customer paid for the same vehicle, every subsequent negotiation would start from that number. “Builders will only put their model home in, maybe a couple of other models,” Gaul says. “They’re not going to put everything in.”
The result is that MLS systems tend to underrepresent new construction inventory, not because builders are unaware of the MLS, but because full participation can work against their pricing strategy. Agents searching for new construction find an incomplete picture, buyers who rely on MLS-based searches miss available inventory, and builders who participate partially end up with listings that don’t fully reflect what they’re selling.
The data-standards problem is compounded by a limited amount of agent training specific to new construction. Licensing programs teach agents how to handle resale transactions, not how to represent buyers at new construction developments. “They don’t teach agents how to sell new construction,” Gaul says. “They teach how to resell, but not new construction.” Gaul recommends agents visit every builder in their market before working with a single buyer, learning prices, construction quality, community demographics, and selling points.
Gaul’s company, Builders Update, has developed a training program for agents selling new construction, structured as a self-paced course with six modules. The platform takes inventory data directly from builders, time-stamps every listing, and performs quality-control checks before publishing. Because construction status and pricing can change within weeks, data that passes through multiple intermediaries can be out of date. “We want to become the pure source for new construction data,” Gaul says.
The platform currently serves approximately 858,000 agents nationwide and is expanding internationally, with the site now available in nine languages and nine currencies. Gaul’s recent ambassadorship with the GDX global MLS network is intended to extend that reach, connecting US new construction inventory with buyers in Latin America, Europe, and beyond. The RESO data dictionary changes Gaul has pushed through have moved from the subcommittee to a broader vote, where organizations less focused on new construction may be more cautious about change. As builders represent a growing share of available inventory in many markets, buyers searching through MLS-based tools will continue to see an incomplete picture until those standards catch up.
