How to read this: claims marked verified were fact-checked against primary sources (ARMLS's own policy documents and license agreements). Claims marked check were extracted from primary sources but exact figures should be confirmed before relying on them.
TL;DR
1. Official ARMLS Access
Who can get data at all
- Access to MLS content outside the MLS system is limited to Participants (broker-level members). Participation requires a current broker's license plus active cooperation (sharing listings with other brokers). verified
- Subscribers must be Arizona-licensed agents or licensed/certified appraisers affiliated with a Participant broker. An unlicensed two-person startup cannot subscribe directly. check
- Vendors/consultants only touch data through or on behalf of a Participant, under a signed Content License Agreement (CLA). verified
How the feed is delivered
- RESO-certified Web API, delivered on FBS's Spark API platform (search results also referenced MLS Grid / Trestle / Bridge as ARMLS delivery platforms). verified
- Process: intake form (ContractSafe) → ARMLS review (up to 5 business days) → CLA via DocuSign → feed provisioned. ARMLS may deny any application for any reason. verified
- Feed categories: IDX (public display on broker sites, display-only), VOW (gated consumer portals), AVM (valuation models), BBO / Back-Office (internal brokerage use, no public display). verified
Costs
| Route | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Broker-sponsored feed | $0 (first 5 per brokerage), then $150/mo per feed; VOW $150/mo | Cheapest official path verified |
| Independent vendor license | $1,000–1,500 per product per month | Plus your users must be ARMLS subscribers, verified monthly against the Agent Roster verified |
| ARMLS subscription (per agent) | ~$20–50/mo + Realtor association dues | From a licensing-school blog, not primary check |
The fit for us: a Back-Office (BBO) feed. Internal deal analysis is exactly what the BBO category exists for. Constraints: data stays inside the brokerage — no public display, no external distribution, no piping raw MLS data to unlicensed third parties. The scoring engine and ARV model would operate as a brokerage-controlled tool.
2. Licensing Landmines
Read before building the LOI blaster.
- Solicitation Requestors are refused data outright: "an individual or entity whose intent is to use MLS Content for soliciting homeowners, consumers, or Subscribers. ARMLS does not provide MLS Content to Solicitation Requestors." verified
- Subscribers may not solicit owners of properties exclusively listed with another broker, including written solicitations targeted using MLS info. → LOIs on active listings must go agent-to-agent as expressions of buyer interest — which is normal practice — not to the homeowner directly. verified
- The vendor application specifically asks about outbound-marketing uses of MLS data. Answering dishonestly is not an option; structure the use case correctly instead. check
- AI systems: any AI use must be disclosed in the application and authorized in the CLA. Closed, non-public AI inference is allowed; AI training or sending content to third-party AI that retains/trains on it is prohibited. Zero-retention API tiers fit this. verified
- Credential sharing is radioactive: liquidated damages of $15,000+ per listing accessed or disclosed by an unauthorized third party, plus fines up to $5,000/violation, suspension, or termination for spidering/harvesting/excessive downloading. Do not "just use a partner's login" for bulk extraction. check
- IDX feeds are display-only — explicitly not usable as a general-purpose data pipeline for offer generation. BBO is the right category, not IDX. check
- The subscriber agreement limits data use to the subscriber's own licensed real-estate business; no republishing, recompiling, or reselling without written consent. check
3. Aggregator / Reseller APIs
| Vendor | Price | Bypasses ARMLS approval? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimplyRETS | $49–199/mo + $99 setup per feed | No — you bring your own MLS credentials | Normalized JSON API; lot size, beds/baths, subdivision; sold-status data only on higher tiers check |
| Repliers | From $199/mo, no contract | Unclear — ARMLS coverage not published | Higher tiers $299–399/mo add alerts, webhooks, NLP search check |
| Bridge Interactive (Zillow Group) | Unpublished; contact-form onboarding | No — each MLS approves access individually | RESO Web API, all MLS fields incl. descriptions; ARMLS participation must be confirmed check |
| RentCast | Free (50 req/mo) → $74/mo (1k) → $449/mo (25k) | Yes — no license or MLS approval needed | Sourced from public records/directories, not MLS feeds: listings, price, days on market, status, agent info; may lack full descriptions and real-time status check |
| ListHub | Low six figures/year | — | Nationwide syndication; irrelevant at our scale check |
| Zillow scraping | "Free" | — | ToS-prohibited and brittle. Not a plan. |
Pattern: legitimate aggregators simplify the plumbing, not the permission. The ones that skip MLS approval (RentCast, PropStream) work from public records and derived data — and lose exactly the fields we want AI to parse: full listing descriptions and real-time status changes.
4. Maricopa County Data (Off-Market Channel)
Free and excellent. All from the Assessor's official Data Downloads page — no cost, no approval process. verified
- Secured Master file — every parcel: owner name, mailing address, property address, legal classification, valuations. Absentee owners = property address ≠ owner mailing address. Trusts/estates = parse owner names for TR / TRUST / ESTATE patterns. verified
- Sales Affidavits — recorded transactions: parcel, grantor, grantee, date, price → ownership duration and purchase basis. check
- Rental Registration — registered rentals with owner mailing addresses → investor/absentee list. check
- GIS parcel shapefile — all active parcels, keyed by APN, ~270 MB zipped; joins to everything else. Lot size lives here. check
- Caveat: the county disclaims real-time accuracy — verify before sending an offer on any specific property. check
Free-and-clear detection needs recorder data or a vendor
| Vendor | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PropStream | Essentials $99/mo ($81/mo annual); Pro $199/mo | ~160M properties, county + some MLS data; filters for absentee, free-and-clear, tax-delinquent; skip tracing 12¢ (free on Pro+); 7-day trial check |
| BatchLeads | $119–749/mo | Skip tracing bundled check |
| CoreLogic ListSource | $0.30–0.45 per record | Pay-as-you-go one-time list pulls check |
| DataTree (First American) | Inexpensive entry tier | Nationwide recorder/title plant data check |
5. Recommended Path
Phase 1 — Build off-market first (cost: ~$0)
Ingest the free Maricopa assessor bulk files. Everything in the plan — location, lot size, home size, long ownership, absentee/second-home owners, trust/estate ownership — is derivable from free county data with zero licensing constraints on AI use or outreach. Add PropStream ($99/mo) or recorder-document parsing when we need free-and-clear detection and owner phone numbers.
Phase 2 — On-market via the brokerage (cost: ~$0–150/mo + paperwork)
Kip's brokerage (or a partner broker) requests a Back-Office feed — one of the five free ones if available — with the CLA disclosing (a) the internal deal-analysis tool and (b) AI inference on a zero-retention basis. Austin is named as the consultant/developer on the application (it explicitly accommodates consultants and requires info from both parties). Data and scoring outputs stay inside the brokerage.
Phase 3 — LOIs, structured compliantly
- Active listings: LOIs go from the licensed partner to listing agents as buyer interest — standard practice, no solicitation issue.
- Off-market owners: outreach driven entirely by county data, which carries no MLS restrictions (only normal direct-mail/telemarketing law).
- Never mix: don't use MLS data to target homeowners directly.
Prototype shortcut while paperwork clears: RentCast's API (free tier → $74/mo) can feed the scoring-engine prototype with listings, days-on-market, and status today, no license needed — accept that descriptions are thin, then swap in the ARMLS feed.
To confirm with ARMLS / vendors (this week's calls)
- Is Kip an ARMLS subscriber, and does his brokerage have free feed slots open?
- Will ARMLS approve a BBO Content License for an investor-facing internal analysis tool with disclosed AI inference? (Email Contracts@ARMLS.com.)
- Repliers and Bridge: do they cover ARMLS, and what does approval require?
- Exact current SimplyRETS / Repliers / PropStream pricing (the "check" figures above).
Sources
Primary: armls.com/data-feeds-vendor-info · ARMLS Content Access Policy (PDF) · ARMLS Content License Application, third-party (PDF) · ARMLS Subscriber Agreement (PDF) · ARMLS Rules & Regulations (PDF, May 2026) · ARMLS Gateway (cobblestonesystems) · simplyrets.com · repliers.com/plans-and-pricing · bridgeinteractive.com and zillowgroup.com developer pages · rentcast.io/api · mcassessor.maricopa.gov/page/data_sales · Maricopa County Open Data (ArcGIS) · propstream.com pricing page.
Secondary/blog: Aaron Kardell, "Your Guide to Licensing Listing Data" · REtipster real-estate-data roundup · resimpli BatchLeads-vs-PropStream comparison · realestateskills.com AZ MLS access guide · BiggerPockets forum thread.