Boston MLS
By Anthony Longo 24 04 2007
Can anyone tell me why we have 2 MLS systems in Boston??? It is completely pointless, weakens the data integrity and cost real estate professionals and Boston real estate service providers more money!!! Are there any other markets out there that have 2 MLS systems in their market?
In Boston we have MLSPIN and LINK. LINK was the market provider of MLS data but recently MLSPIN has started making in roads in the downtown Boston Real Estate market. I would guesstimate that LINK has 60% of downtown listings, MLSPIN has 70% leaving some the same as LINK and some not the same. We are estimating that 30% of brokers put their listings in both MLSPIN and LINK.
So what does this mean? Well it really means you need to look in both sources to find a complete list of Boston Real Estate for sale. Just looking at one source could mean you are missing up to 40% of the inventory.
ahhhhh….someone needs to buy someone out because this is pointless and is costing the professsional real estate community too much $$$.
Anyone else having the same problems???
Separate MLS systems were a big enough issue here in Silicon Valley where there’s now an initiative (called NCREX) to combine the four here in the Bay Area plus the one in the Central Valley.
It’s not as bad as the ones in Boston overlapping, but it’s pretty annoying to drive from one neighboring city to another and have to use (and have membership in) a different MLS system.
On the other hand, we have two Realtor associations that cover the same territory and that has its own very interesting dynamic…
Sometimes I think that the NAR just set it up this way…not to cause greif….but just to get more $$$ out of our hard working real estate agents!!!