If you’ve ever built a product on top of MLS data, you already know the uncomfortable truth:

Getting access to MLS data is only the beginning.

Operating it reliably in production is the real work.

Teams don’t struggle because they can’t get MLS data.

They struggle because MLS data is volatile, fragmented, and operationally expensive to maintain at scale.

Sync jobs run constantly.

Schemas drift.

Listings disappear.

Photos change.

Compliance rules evolve.

Edge cases pile up quietly until something breaks.

Most proptech teams eventually realize they’re not building their product anymore.

They’re running an MLS ingestion and maintenance system.

Today, we’re introducing GroundTruth Layer to change that.

 

The problem we kept seeing

 

Over the years, we’ve worked with teams across the proptech ecosystem: startups, established vendors, brokerages, and data-heavy platforms. Different products, same underlying pain.

Everyone ends up reinventing the same internal infrastructure:

  • polling MLS feeds continuously

  • normalizing inconsistent schemas

  • tracking removals and status changes

  • managing images and media churn

  • rebuilding databases to stay fresh

  • explaining MLS behavior to new engineers

 

This work is invisible to users, expensive to maintain, and absolutely critical. And yet, it’s almost never the thing teams want to be building.

 

Why APIs weren’t enough

 

Most MLS data solutions stop at “here’s an API.”

That works early.

It stops working when your product grows.

At scale, serious teams don’t want to rebuild databases downstream, manage ingestion pipelines, or design their application around request-per-page access. They want MLS data to behave like infrastructure: stable, predictable, and always there.

That’s the gap GroundTruth Layer is designed to fill.

 

What GroundTruth Layer is

 

GroundTruth Layer is a managed MLS data layer built to be used as primary infrastructure.

Each customer operates against a dedicated, continuously maintained MLS data environment that stays in sync automatically and can be queried directly in production systems.

You don’t poll feeds.

You don’t rebuild databases.

You don’t chase MLS churn.

You build on top of a data foundation that’s already being operated for you.

 

What it’s not (and why that matters)

 

GroundTruth Layer is not an IDX solution.

IDX products are designed for consumer-facing display and MLS-authorized redistribution. GroundTruth Layer is designed as a technical data layer, operating as a subcontractor and data processor on behalf of customers who already hold MLS authorization for their specific use cases.

That distinction matters. It allows teams to use MLS data for search, maps, analytics, internal tools, and AI workflows without being constrained by IDX-specific display assumptions.

 

How teams actually use it

 

Teams use GroundTruth Layer as their MLS data layer.

Applications query live listings for:

  • structured search and filtering

  • map-driven experiences

  • location-aware discovery

  • analytics and reporting

  • AI and ML workflows

 

All of this runs on the same continuously updated MLS foundation, while ingestion, normalization, removals, media handling, and data freshness are handled behind the scenes.

The result is simpler systems, fewer failure modes, and teams that can focus on product instead of plumbing.

 

Built for trust and long-term use

 

MLS data isn’t just about access. It’s about responsibility.

GroundTruth Layer is designed to support documented MLS data-handling requirements where they are technically enforceable at the data layer, while keeping customers in control of how data is presented, used, and governed within their applications.

Customers retain their MLS relationships and compliance obligations.

We operate the technical foundation that makes those obligations easier to meet.

 

Why we built this

 

We built GroundTruth Layer because too many good teams were spending years maintaining the same invisible infrastructure.

There’s no competitive advantage in re-solving MLS ingestion for the tenth time.

There is advantage in building better products on top of clean, reliable data.

GroundTruth Layer exists to make that possible.

 

Learn more

 

You can read the full product overview here:

👉 GroundTruth Layer: A Managed MLS Data Layer for Modern Proptech

If you’re building something where MLS data is core infrastructure, we’d love to talk.