The Best MLS Website for Searching Properties/Homes for Sale

Once a week I meet with a group of business owners and discuss ideas and referrals that can help grow each other’s businesses. Today I asked them to give me the specific term or words that they would use to search for properties that would interest them.  Here is some of what they gave me:

• Hobby Farms
• Homes with mother-in-law suites
• Properties that could be used to host parties/weddings
• Properties that would be considered investments and why
• Properties with assumable mortgages
• Lake properties

The one thing that I noticed when I started looking at this list is that there is a huge gap in what you can search for with the large online platforms like Zillow, Realtor.com, and others vs. as a Realtor what we can search for on our local MLS.

Let me give you an example.  Say you wanted to search for lake properties. Obviously, you can do that on just about any search site.  On MLS I’m able to narrow that search by a specific lake, by the amount of frontage you’d like, whether or not there’s a road between the property and the home, the size of the lake, whether you want lakefront or deeded access, the quality of the frontage, the depth of the lake and even the slope to the lake.  For hobby farms MLS would allow me to search by the specific type of outbuildings and acreage. MLS allows me to search something for everything in that list where the large online platforms do not have that capability.

You get the idea.  The more specifics you are looking for in a property, the less time that will be wasted by speaking to a Realtor and letting them know what exactly you are looking for.  They can simply set up a search through MLS that you will receive through email and when the right property gets listed, you’ll know and can go see it while the other buyers are sorting through their lists trying to find it. You will also get the most accurate and up-to-date information first.  Because it’s MLS that all the other sites receive their information from and there can be a delay in that process.

So if you are looking for homes/properties for sale, where’s the best place to look?  MLS.

Do you have a dream property you’d like to keep an eye out for.  Just give me a call and let’s discuss it.