I was out to dinner with some friends recently. They have busy lives of family, children, business and travel. So when the topic of searching for real estate on web sites came around they listened closely because felt like they were talking to an expert concerning real estate web sites.
I never realized so many don't understand real estate web sites. Appearantly, many general people have a hard time understanding the differences of real estate web sites. So here it is in plain terms. Real Estate web sites are popping up all the time. This article helps to sort out everything.
Following the source of information, Real Estate Web Sites can be categorized as follows:
- Local MLS Private Real Estate Web Sites
- National Aggregate Real Estate Web Sites
- Regional Broker Real Estate Web Sites
- Agent Real Estate Web Sites
- Single Property Real Estate Web Sites
Local MLS Private Real Estate Web Sites
When a property is listed for sale, it is usually done so through a licensed real estate company (or broker). The license is kinda like a drivers license in the sense that a person needs one to be able to practice real estate activities. This is important step because authorities can track people who do wrong and they can lose their license.
The broker collects the home information (beds, baths, etc) and put that information into a web site called the MLS. The MLS is a private web site only accessible by real estate companies (and their agents and employees). They are local sites only, so agents in West Palm Beach can't access the MLS in Miami.
There is no rhyme or reason on boundaries for the Local MLS Private Real Estate Web Sites. In fact, the boundaries often overlap.
In the greater West Palm Beach area, the MLS's are as follows:
- Regional MLS (greater Palm Beach county)
- Martin County MLS (greater Martin county)
- Palm Beach MLS (Palm Beach Island only, darling)
- South East Florida MLS (greater Ft Lauderdale & Broward county)
A common trend for the MLS's is to allow the general public to access information if it is marked as publiclly available by the real estate company who listed it. So from our list above, the public sites are below:
- Regional MLS: http://home2florida.com/
- Martin County MLS: none
- Palm Beach MLS: none
- South East Florida MLS: none
National Aggregate Real Estates
National Aggregate Real Estates are sites like Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com. These web sites all follow the same business model. They aquire real estate properties for sale from around the country and build a single web site around them. They then sell advertising on the site to both brokers and agents as well as other companies.
Realtor.com has a monopoly on listing information.