Research Triangle Real Estate

MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service. The basis of the MLS is an agreement among a group of real estate agents to share information on their listings and to offer compensation to other agents who bring a buyer for their listings. In its early years, MLS participants held information on listed properties very tightly, meaning if a consumer wanted a source of information on which properties were currently listed, they had to consult a participating agent. Information was published in books with prominent warnings of confidentiallity and penalties for unauthorized disemination, kind of a funny way to do business when you think about it. If you were selling a home, you would likely want as many potential buyers as possible to know about it, not keep that information confidential. The Internet has changed that (against the wishes of some in the real estate industry, who fought-and are still fighting-to maintain their stranglehold over information). While consumers still can not directly search the MLS, they can search for information on listed properties through IDX(Internet Data Exchange) sites, which have information on all listed proeprties for sale in a given area, but not as complete information as can be found on the actual MLS. Consumers can get access to the more complete MLS information, but still must do that through a relationship with a real estate agent.

To see an example of an MLS sheet, click here to view one of my current listings http://www.goddinrealestate.com/mlslist9.html
To see that same property on an IDX site, click here
http://www.goddinrealestate.com/mls.html
then click to search by MLS number and enter 873816
This same property as displayed on my website is here
http://www.goddinrealestate.com/listing9.html
You can use the search screen from the second example above to search all listed properties in the Triangle MLS. Advanced search provides more options.