5 Ways MLS is Changing the Way Real Estate Online Works

Many modern markets are looking to technology and online-based solutions to help them better serve their clients, and the real estate market is no exception. One of the main transitions in the real estate industry, specifically, has been the transition of the MLS or Multiple Listing Service to the internet for use and analysis.

This has changed the way the real estate works, online and offline, but specifically online. The MLS at this point is pretty much exclusively used online, and because of this, access to the MLS has drastically changed, although it is still a pay-to-play model.

Below are 5 ways the online MLS is changing the way real estate works today and how you can use them to help you find or sell a home.

Listing a home? You have options.

If you are listing your home for sale by owner or looking to rent or buy, you have tons of options now for both where to list and where to find property because of the online MLS. Even if you are using a realtor or agent, they will still be utilizing the online MLS to help you find what you’re looking for or to list your property.

So many different websites are available that link up and reflect what the MLS lists. You do, however, need to list on the MLS to have yourself listed on many of these (not all, but the majority, and the reputable ones).

Listing a home has never been this easy

That being said, you have options because of the way real estate has moved online to actually have access to the MLS. You don’t have to have a realtor or agent list for you, nor do you need to pay their outrageous fees to have them list for you (which, admittedly, was the backbone of the old real estate model).

Now you can list a home for sale by owner on sites like beycome, where there’s only a $79 flat-fee for listing on the MLS (and having your listing reflected on all the reputable sites, as mentioned above). You can also receive a significant refund on commission as well from beycome when you buy or sell a home.

This changes the game significantly because the typical, outdated commission model in real estate does not offer any money back to a buyer and especially not a seller or renter.

Listing a home has never been this affordable

As mentioned above, listing a home has never been this affordable because using the online MLS also bypasses a lot of manual labor that used to be implemented during a real estate transaction, gives you the opportunity to list for a price way below what agents have normally charged, plus gives you the opportunity to receive the commission that would normally go to an agent and instead have it for yourself as a refund. That’s a whole lot of change in a market that, prior to going online, would have never imagined those options for buyers and sellers.

Now, a lot of the data needed for someone looking for a specific property or listing a specific property can be searched within seconds or inputted into one system, once, and syndicated from there to every other necessary listing.

The advent of the online MLS has brought a lot of tech companies the opportunity to “disrupt” the real estate market by being able to bypass agents in order to get access to the MLS, and many of them are succeeding. Disrupting the market includes providing value that was otherwise not available to customers. The online MLS is at the basis of these disruptions.

By offering a listing price significantly lower than any agency, websites are able to offer customers something a bit more valuable and user-friendly - especially the ones who offer customer service online, 24/7.

Previously, agents were only available to help you during work hours. Being online has changed the customer service and money saving factor of the real estate market immensely.

Listing a home has never been this fast

The MLS going online has cut the time it takes to list or finding a new home more than half and puts more pressure than on anyone selling to get on and off the market fast. The real estate market was already a game of time, but with the way things are able to move online with both going live and methods of fast communication, it’s even more now.

Many sites promise, and deliver, a 24-hour or less than turnaround for a live MLS listing.

Being notified of listings has reached a whole new level

Having your listing on the online MLS helps you, or you and your agent, with the opportunity to link up with whatever is going on listing-wise on the MLS in real time based on your location and criteria.

This means, while both you or you and your agent are cooking dinner or watching TV off hours, you still will be able to receive email or text notifications about any homes that perfectly match your criteria, or your home being listed during these hours (if they match a buyers’ criteria) will be immediately sent to them as a notification.

This is a game changer when it comes to real estate because it values the entire market a bit higher. When everything moves faster in real estate, the value of the property goes up - the longer a property sits on the market, the faster its value goes down. When everyone is being notified in real time, there’s way more of a chance that things close within hours, even days, and there’s less time spent combing through listings looking for the perfect one when instead, you can put in your necessary criteria and have those listings delivered right to you.

This also changes the real estate game because it is sent not only to you but to anyone else with similar criteria. The knowledge that within the moments you received the notification, a large number of other house hunters received the same notification and are simultaneously aware of the same listing heats up the timeline a bit and makes for faster negotiations. Prior to being so online-based, a home being noticed by a potential buyer did not have the same context.