Whether you're buyer or seller in the Colorado real estate market, this news affects you BIG TIME.
What is the MLS (Multiple Listing Service)?
As some of you know, real estate professionals like myself utilize a tool called the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) to market our listings, to search for listings for our buyers, to stay on top of market conditions, to research property values, among many many other things.The MLS is essentially a giant database of listings and other data that is the lifeblood of the real estate industry.
For Sellers, the MLS is an essential tool because that’s how Buyers (and Buyer’s Agents) will find your home! Agents like myself create a search in the MLS and send listings to our buyers that fit their search criteria. If your home falls into my Buyer’s search criteria, they WILL see it!
In addition, Listing Agents use the MLS to find the most recent “sold comps” to create the most accurate, comparative market analysis (CMA), which helps us in establishing a list price with the Seller. We also use the MLS to look at current “Active” and “Under Contract” comps to stay up to date on the market conditions in your neighborhood.
For Buyers, we use it to search the most up to date listings currently available. In this hot seller’s market, a home that was listed today is very likely to go under contract by the weekend. Sites like Zillow cannot keep up. The ONLY source for accurate listing information is the local MLS.
Multiple MLSs?!
Did you know that we have THREE different MLS systems along Colorado’s Front Range?
- IRES (Information and Real Estate Services, LLC) essentially serves Northern Colorado (including communities of Boulder, Longmont, Loveland, Fort Collins, Greeley, Estes Park, and everything in between);
- REColorado (formerly Denver Metrolist) is essentially the Denver Metro area MLS (including Denver and surrounding municipalities);
And for clients in the southern part of the state there is also: - PPAR (Pike’s Peak Association of Realtors) is essentially the MLS for Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
Side note: Sites like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com (and virtually every other “real estate” website out there) receive their listings through special data feed agreements with the MLS(s). However, the data isn’t always up to date and may not include listing data from ALL MLSs! (That's a whole other subject). Just remember – do NOT trust Zillow or Realtor.com or any other website.Trust your REALTOR who has access to the local MLS(s).
Data Sharing Between MLSs
For the last 14 years the MLSs have had “data sharing” agreements in place.This means that agents in Northern Colorado, who belong to IRES only could also see listings from Denver based agents and vice versa. This has been super helpful when you have clients moving from one area to another, and who don’t want to hire another Realtor in a different area.
Thanks to these Data Sharing agreements, Sellers and their Listing Agents were confident that their listings were being exposed to the largest audience possible. Buyers and their Buyer’s Agents were able to see ALL available listings on the market, regardless of which MLS they belonged to. But that is no longer the case.
Data Sharing is Ending
Unfortunately, in an effort to monopolize the MLS industry, REColorado is suddenly terminating their data sharing agreement with IRES effective March 2, 2017 (TOMORROW). Why are they doing this? It’s a long story and I’d be happy to share that with you over a cup of coffee!
What Does This Mean to Buyers and Sellers?
Generally speaking, if you’re a Buyer or Seller anywhere from the Denver metro area, all the way up North to Fort Collins, you’ll want to make sure your agent is a member of both MLSs – IRES and REColorado.
For example, if you’re a Buyer looking Erie, and your Realtor is a member of IRES only, you’ll only see about 40% of the listings that are available, since REColoado has 60% of Erie listings currently.
If you’re an investor wanting to sell a home you just flipped in Frederick, your Denver based agent (who only belongs to REColorado) will only give your listing about 40% exposure.
The Good News?!
I am a member of both IRES and REColorado and have been for 9 years. I realized early on that in order to serve both my Seller and Buyer clients the best way possible, I had to belong to both MLSs.
So, when you’re ready to buy or sell, I’ll be ready to accommodate ALL of my Buyer & Seller needs!
Sally Grenier
Broker Owner
Grenier Real Estate
303-475-4508
sally@sallygrenier.com