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By Roger Dolanch, Broker/Owner

The real estate market is highly competitive, and our business is unique in that competitors must constantly cooperate with each other to ensure successful transactions. Multiple Listing Services facilitate that cooperation.

The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is a virtual property warehouse. When property is available for sale, it goes into the warehouse. When it is sold, it is reported as sold and remains in the warehouse. Since real estate cannot actually be physically stored in a warehouse, the MLS only contains information.

In the late 1800s, real estate brokers and agents from different companies regularly held monthly meetings of their local REALTOR® Board as they continue to do to this day. Back then, while attending to business at these meetings, the attendees would also take advantage of the opportunity to promote properties they were hired to sell to the other REALTORS® in the hopes that they were working with a buyer that would be a good match to their property. The first MLS was born, based on a fundamental principal that's unique to organized real estate: "Help me sell my inventory and I'll help you sell yours."

Essentially, the MLS is a group of private databases that are maintained and paid for by real estate professionals to help their clients buy and sell property. In most cases, access to information from MLS listings is provided to the public free-of-charge by participating REALTORS®. Data that is not publicly accessible includes information that would endanger sellers' privacy or safety, such as seller contact information, special situations and terms.

Today the country is covered by large regional multi-list services. Member REALTORS® share information about properties they have listed and invite other brokers to cooperate in their sale in exchange for compensation if they produce the buyer. Sellers benefit by increased exposure to their property. Buyers benefit because they can access all MLS-listed properties while working with one REALTOR®. Appraisers benefit because the MLS records are much more detailed than tax records to aid them in determining value.

The MLS is a powerful force for competition. It levels the playing field so that even the smallest brokerage in town can compete with the biggest multi-state firm. Buyers and sellers can work with the one REATLOR®, confident that they have access to the largest pool of properties for sale in the marketplace.

Over 90% of recent buyers used MLS websites in their search, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. The MLS is also the source of information to feed almost all of those other real estate websites. Some of those websites are up-to-the- minute accurate, and some of them may take a few weeks or even months to migrate properly, depending on the technology being utilized by the site itself. The closer one gets to the actual multi-list, the more up to date the information, which is another advantage to working with your ONE favorite CENTURY 21 Frontier Realty REALTOR®.

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