I had a seller client once who asked me to make a change on her MLS listing. I had her sign the required change form and within a few minutes of receiving the signed change authorization via fax, I e-mailed a link to her listing on the MLS saying I had made the changes she requested. She then went on line and checked the listing from the source she had to the MLS and called me stating I had NOT made the changes. While on the phone with her, I looked up the property on the MLS and found the change was indeed there. She argued and insisted. I sent the link to the MLS again to her and asked her to open it. It was changed on my link but she was not able to see the change on the "MLS Online". It finally dawned on me that she was using a real estate company website from our area called "MLSOnline" to do her search which updates only once a day. Their delayed update schedule explained why she was not seeing the change.
Once I realized what the confusion was, I explained the program used in our area (Minnesota) that allows the consumer to search listings downloaded from the MLS. That program is called "Broker Reciprocity". The real estate companies that agree to join "Broker Reciprocity" give permission to other "Broker Reciprocity" participants to show their listings on competing websites. It is not the true MLS.
When the consumer searches for Minnesota listings on the internet, there should be a "Broker Reciprocity" logo like the one pictured here. All participating web sites must display this log. If the logo is not present, you are either searching a black market site or listings that come from a source different than the MLS. The participating real estate companies provide this access to the public as a form of marketing their listings. The amount of information is limited, and every real estate company is drawing their information from the same source. What they provide to the public may differ as some give more information than others, but the source is the same.
Most, but not all companies, participate. But since not all companies participate, you may not find the listing for which you are searching online. The ONLY people who can search the entire MLS listing service are REALTORS. The MLS is password protected and includes more data than the consumer is allowed to see in their searches. Additionally, different companies choose to update their Broker Reciprocity listings on different time schedules. Some are only done once daily. Some are done several times an hour. The only place you can search the MLS in "real" time is through a REALTOR's access to the REAL MLS!
So, if you try to find your neighbor's house because the sign just went up, but can't find it, call me! I'll check the MLS directly and e-mail a link to the listing directly to you!
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