If you have ever sold or purchased a home, you may have heard the term Multiple Listing Service or MLS. What is the MLS? It is a database used by REALTORS or professional real estate agents as a source for all the houses available for sale. Not long ago, the Tallahassee MLS was a printed book distributed by the local Board of Realtors on a weekly or monthly basis. Today, thank goodness, it is online.
The Mulitple Listing Service is created by listing agents and listing brokers entering information about each house listed for sale. Specifics such as price, age, bedrooms, square footage, financing options, school zones, and legal property description are some of the information required by the listing agent. This is also how the commission from listing brokers to selling brokers is offered.
The Tallahassee MLS is reliant on the information input by real estate agents and brokers. If a home is not input by a real estate professional or affiliate, it will not be in this database. Specifically, homes for sale by owner, or FSBO, will not be in the MLS, unless the FSBO has paid a REALTOR to have it entered.
When doing a search in the Tallahassee MLS, you or your REALTOR have the abilty to select search criteria to thin your results. The ability to customize your search can be particularly useful when so many of homes are for sale. You can search prices ranges, specific areas of town, or even by school zones.
The Tallahassee MLS is only available to REALTORS and MLS affiliates. However, buyers may access the information through differnt websites that pull the information directly from the Multiple Listing Service. Because the true MLS may have confidential information like showing instructions on properties or private seller information, these MLS fed websites do not contain all of the information your REALTOR has available. Also, because these websites are fed from the MLS, they are often delayed a day or so behind on updates.
If you would like to search all of the homes listed for sale in Tallahassee just like a Tallahassee real estate broker, check out Joe Manausa’s fast property search tool that accesses data from the Tallahassee MLS.
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