WHAT IS MLS AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO REAL ESTATE WEBSITE?

“Find out where the people are going and buy the land before they get there”. This famous quote of William Penn Adair is brilliantly supporting the importance of a website for real estate agencies. The real estate agents and brokers are expending more on the development of a real estate website equipped with a very crucial feature of MLS.

What Is MLS?

Multi Listings Service (MLS) is the collection of various regional property listing databases. It allows the brokers and real estate agents to work together with other brokers and agents in the same region irrespective of the competitive mindset. The concept of MLS has winged & wheeled the real estate agencies and brokerages to fly and wander among the realtors of the same region. Currently, 700-800 regional databases have been successfully created and financed by local real estate professionals to expedite property sales.

Why MLS is needed?

In the digital age, where almost everyone is online, real estate buyers and sellers can search and browse through infinite real estate websites. Even then the need for MLS application has felt. If a buyer comes into contact with a broker who belongs to an MLS, the broker can search quickly all the buyers’ desired information of “for sale” properties directly. The MLS is often times loaded with the private contact details of the sellers and his/her availability timings. This consolidated service has enabled the brokers to quickly and effectively search the available properties in the area without a lengthy and tiring searching process. MLS provides consolidated information rather than split into fragments.

An MLS or real estate listing permits competitors i.e. brokers of different brokerages to work together for a common goal of helping buyers to find out their desired properties and also to aid out sellers sales.

The process of home buying and selling has been accelerated to a higher degree for both; the buyer and the seller as both are aided by the brokers.

Importance of MLS to a Real Estate Website

The digitization journey of realtors started with the advancement in technologies at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Real estate websites yield a more powerful exposure to the real estate properties. It gained more pace with the induction of MLS into a real estate website. MLS provides an expandable platform to estate agents. Once after listing your property on MLS, more visitors are accessible to it. But the introduction of Internet Data Exchange (IDX) has doubled this pace with the access of the public to such online websites. The MLS integration proves a more powerful and attractive tool to real estate websites. Only estate agents and realtors were reachable to MLS databases. The IDX with its defined rules and policies makes the real estate agents display listings from MLS properties on their websites. The forthcoming debate will enclose the importance of MLS to a real estate website:

• Downloading properties from MLS to your website give new birth to estate agents websites and it becomes a living organ on search engine with leading traffic. A search engine considers such a website more informative for real estate property dealing with hundreds of URLs to index.
• All of the listings that are on MLS on your website can increase the interest of online home buyers. The easy search functions may lead an online real estate buyer to your website and can also keep him/her for a long period of time to choose his choice in one place. If the buyer finds the desired information on your website with your real estate branding and contact details, you have done all. You need to wait for contact.
• MLS Integration increases the visibility of your website. You can flourish your own listings automatically on your own. In this way, your listings get more visibility than other such listings.
• MLS integration equips your website with the feature of automation. Once you have done listings integration, your estate web will be updated automatically with any update in the listings.
• The URL can be customized in favor of property which can be embedded with the physical address of it.
• It is also useful for both; the seller and buyer. The seller can get exposure for its property to thousands of potential buyers. A buyer get instant access to listings to contain thousands of sellers where he/she can get the best and specifically choice matched home, property, etc. The agents or brokers get their due commission on every sale being the buyer or seller representative.
• MLS listings also provide small brokerages the equal chances to compete with larger ones. Property owners without the implementations of MLS would prefer the estate agents with massive setups and large brokerages to get the greatest exposure for their property.

How IDX Broker Work

IDX act as a facilitator or third-party service for MLS data. The raw data from MLS is taken to shape and package into a searchable format on a real estate website. The real estate agents gather relative information and forward it to its MLS providers. MLS stores this data and keeps it for a long time until the final focus of IDX vendors to reach this data on the account of MLS members. Furthermore, to provide the best searching results, the bulk of MLS listing is kept on a real estate website.

MLS / IDX Integration

A website with IDX integration means more property listings. In other words, the increase in listings increases the number of useful content on your web. It will help to lead and land a large number of buyers and sellers to your web to search for the best property information. This feature attracts the best MLS provider in Canada to integrate their website with IDX compatibility. PNMG is Canada’s only IDX certified company for MLS / IDX integration. It helps real estate companies and realtors with automated multi-listing services via customized designs and integration.

What is TERRB?

TERRB stands for Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. It has its own MLS database. It is a not-for-profit organization. It was founded 100 years ago by several real estate practitioners. It is also considered to be Toronto’s largest real estate board with more than 50,000 real estate professional members. It shaped the very basic structure of the real estate property system and also enjoying the oldest such board of Toronto and Canada as well.

Environment for MLS Realtors in Toronto

The future of MLS real estate properties is glowing in Toronto. The increasing number of immigrants in Toronto in search of a better lifestyle is growing the construction sector fast and steady. The TERRB reports show the increase in prices. Although the outbreak of COVID-19 has drastically changed the dimensions of real estate dealings. But the environment is again getting clear in favor of realtors due to Toronto’s best geography with a natural and luxurious life. The MLS Integration importance will continue to grow in the future.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mudassir Malik is an entrepreneur, tech expert, BPO, and operational excellence coach currently working as the co-founder and COO at PNM Group. Mudassir has been in this industry for over a decade now. He has helped several North America-based companies with different mega projects including a state-of-the-art job board, a national portal for customer facilitation for a Canadian State company, etc. Currently, he is overseeing the strategy and vision, major client relationships, and leading key engagements at PNM Group which is a leading branding agency based in Toronto offering full-scale design, development, branding, and digital marketing related services.