Hurlbuthomes.com Blog

No, this post is not about Major League Soccer. Although likely in the United States not many people know what that is either! No, today I want to talk about the Multiple Listing Service, the MLS. What is it? Why is it important?

In general, most agents are members of their local MLS. There is not one BIG MLS that covers the entire country, rather there are local regional MLS's. I suppose it would even be possible to have more than one MLS in the same city. As I understand it, in the Puget sound, prior to the evolution of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) there were a number of smaller metro MLS's. In our MLS, the NWMLS, basically covers most of western washington and even parts of Eastern Washington although there are other MLS's in Eastern Washington as well.

The MLS is a repository, a database of homes. As agents, when we take a listing for a home, the first thing we do in general is input that listing into the MLS. Once that listing is input into the MLS, it advertises it to other members of the MLS as available. If they have searches set up for their buyers, then your home pops into that search if it matches the criteria and that agent will forward your home to their client.

In addition, once the home is listed in the MLS, every company (John L. Scott, Windermere, Keller Williams, etc.) that is a member of the MLS has the ability to "suck down" the information from the MLS and re-post it on their web site. This is why as a buyer, if you search for homes on http://johnlscott.com/ or Windermere, or Keller Williamas, etc. you'll likely see the same homes over and over again. So when looking for a home, pick the site (Ahem, John L. Scott) that works best for you and stick with it. It'll save you time and duplication of effort.

As an added benefit, as agents, when we represent you the buyer, we can show you ANY home that's listed in the MLS. So you don't have to use a Keller Williams agent to show you a Keller Williams listing. You can use any agent (Ahem, ME!) to show you any listing you see. AND even if you want to see a For Sale By Owner listing, we can make provisions for that as well. As a buyer's agent, our services to you are 100% free.

So search away, get yourself represented by a buyers agent and get into that new home!