08/24/2023
What is MLS anyway? You might know that it stands for Multiple Listing Service. You might NOT know how it works, but it matters to anyone who is buying or selling a home.
Years ago, before the internet, the local realtor associations would gather data on all homes listed by realtors and publish them for its realtor-members, to give accurate and timely information on all homes for sale (well, it wasn’t very timely pre-internet).
There were mainly two ways that homes were marketed: through MLS by and for realtors, for their clients, and classified ads in local newspapers. MLS is still organized by local real estate broker associations. Here in Central Texas, it’s the Austin Board of Realtors. MLS’s are all local—there are hundreds throughout the country.
In the internet era, the data and information is now extremely timely, and still the most accurate information available. It is provided directly by the association’s realtor members.
The important thing is the data BEGINS in an MLS, and then realtors push it out to other sites like Zillow, Redfin, Homes.com, Realtor.com, and many others, to get maximum exposure to buyers and sellers. Realtors don’t go to Zillow first—they list on MLS and then push it out to Zillow. You may prefer to use Zillow or Redfin to browse for homes because you like the design and the feel of that particular site. MLS does have consumer sites too that many buyers use.
MLS is a very efficient system—commercial real estate doesn’t have anything quite like it. Commercial real estate is marketed through Loopnet and Costar and Crexi, but they’re all independent and separate, and “silos” if you will.
Consumers have access to an amazing amount of information today about homes that they have never had before, and that’s really great for consumers and for realtors, but it can obscure the actual source of the data, which is still the MLS.
One more thing: Texas is a “non-disclosure state” which means that sold prices are not public record, unlike property tax values, mortgages, and other information. If a home is listed and sold on MLS, then the actual sold price and other terms are input by the listing realtor and are available to realtors only on MLS. You might be able to find that information elsewhere but you can’t trust its accuracy.
It’s all about trust. You can TRUST your realtor to give you the most timely, accurate and TRUE information about homes, and we dedicate ourselves to guiding you through a real estate transaction with the skill and professionalism that you deserve.
