If you have any experience with buying or selling a property, MLS is not an unknown term to you.MLS plays an important part in everyday life of any realtor and I, a realtor from Toronto, am no exception. If you’re interested why MLS is such a big deal, just read on.
The fundaments of MLS
Multiply Listing Service is nothing less or more than a database of all property for sale, connecting two agents, one that represents the seller and the other representing the potential buyer. It is region-based.It comprise of all the information of the property the owner wished to make public, like address, size, location, number of rooms, and much more. Usually the local area and its services are covered too, with plenty of photos.
The main difference between this database of property and lets say property listing in your local paper is quite crucial.MLS is currently accessible only to the realtors, since it was created and is maintained by realtors. What you see on your realtor’s website or in your local papers is just a portion of the information stored in the MLS database.
The history
50 years ago the MLS originated as listing sheets or ringed binders with information on the property for sale in the region, manually updated twice a month.The first “upgrade” of the system came up when the real bound MLS books appeared once a month with weekly updates.Only realtors paying the membership fees were entitled to the information in the system.The 70s introduced a bit more convenient system with the 3rd generation of the system consisting of computerized databases and dumb terminals. No more printed books!Yet more modernization was about to come: the beginning of 90s, expansion of personal computers and the evolvement of the Internet finally established the system we are using now: web-based databases.
The fifth generation
You might encounter an opinion that the current version of the system isn’t good enough because it’s regional based, which isn’t enough.Primarily in the USA, a certain group of realtors is proposing the creation of so called MLS 5.0 after the fashion of the ‘web 2.0′.The new version should provide information on all the properties nationwide, not just those currently on the market (parcel based) and should be to some degree accessible also for customers, vendors and developers.No such system is currently being prepared in Canada.
What can MLS bring to you as the customer?
75% of property on sale are sold with the use of MLS.If you’re a seller, your property would never get that as much exposure as possible without MLS.Equally the buyers benefit from MLS: thanks to MLS their broker has a very good idea of what’s on the market.Therefore when choosing your realtor, always make sure that they are part of the local board of realtors and have access to the MLS in the region you intend to buy the property.
Tags: MLS, MLS 5.0, MLS Canada, MLS Toronto
