The MLS walked garden is the problem it seems to me many are trying to solve. If I see value in an agent, I'll hire them no matter what - but even with my current place, my agent sent me MLS listings and I crawled through Trulia and the like, and emailed him what I was interested in seeing. The place I ended up in I saw on Craigslist. That didn't negate the need for an agent, but his access to the magical MLS that we normals aren't allowed to have access to was inconsequential, and keeping it secluded seems silly at this point.