I'm curious to know if Ryan has spoken to any of the local (I live in the same town) agents about the lock-in to see what they think? I don't know a huge amount

I'm curious to know if Ryan has spoken to any of the local (I live in the same town) agents about the lock-in to see what they think? I don't know a huge amount about the industry, but it has some interesting dynamics. There are a handful of major franchises (Re/Max, Century 21, CBRE on the commercial side) that folks sign on to. Why are such companies so enticing to agents? Is there a benefit to doing the same thing as every other agent in your region, or is the barrier to standalone entry to the market too high? I presume that the franchise groups are heavily wedded to the existing MLS stuff, even if they have their own separate listing facilities (certainly the largest Re/Max group here puts all their listings on their own website). I should talk to one of my neighbours about it, as I have some interesting ideas :)