Multiple Listing Service (MLS)

What Is A Multiple Listing Service?

Multiple Listing Service (MLS) refers to multiple listing services. They are technology-driven private databases created, maintained, and funded by real estate professionals to facilitate real estate transactions, whether purchases or sales.

A multiple listing service is a tool that ensures that brokers can cooperatively sell off real estate and match buyers with sellers, consolidating information on property and sharing the commissions once the deals are struck.

Multiple listing services often create a physical file or folder and, in some cases, an electronic database containing all the houses for sale by affiliated brokers. These details are updated regularly and then distributed in paperback or online to every member of the community.

Deeper Definition

The concept of multiple listing services has its roots in the practices of the late 1800s, where real estate agents usually assembled in each other’s offices sharing information about the properties each one was trying to sell.

It is this model of in-person networking that birthed the multiple listing service that is now generally employed.

To gain access to each multiple listing service, real estate agents and brokers must pay dues or membership fees.

This fee payment, in turn, grants the agents open access to information on the homes in the area, including listings, photographs, and specific details like the square footage and other features of the property.

The MLS can only be accessible by licensed agents and brokers, and each one typically follows the rules set out by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

One of the specifications of the rules is that the listing should indicate the commission earned by the seller, which will then be shared by the realtor who introduces the buyer.

Multiple listing services are essential in this time and age because buyers who belong to brokers on the multiple listing service networks are afforded the privilege and opportunity to quickly and conveniently search for all the properties owned and listed for sale by the participating agents.

A multiple leasing service may be run such that the agents and brokers create the database, and prospective buyers can be exposed to several listings, thus while sellers and buyers are linked by their brokers or agents. National listings from real estate websites are gotten from regional databases of the MLS.