When people think about buying a home in Barrie they often search the local MLS. MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service. It’s a tool Real Estate Agents use to share their listings with each other. So if you were thinking of buying a home in Barrie or in the surrounding area, the odds are that you will at some point end up looking at home for sale through the MLS system.
The idea behind the MLS came from a need to sell homes more efficiently. Since most people use Real Estate Agents, one of the most cost effective ways to get a home marketed is to get it in front of Real Estate Agents. Before the internet this consisted of what was basically a book that went to every office with all the newly listed homes for sale. Brokerages joined and they all shared listings with each other. So if, for example, you wanted to sell your home in Barrie, the best way would be to get your home listed for sale on the MLS through an agent.
The MLS is built around the spirit of cooperation. Real Estate Agents can work together and share their listings with each other to get them sold faster. What this also means is that some rules come into play with an MLS. So if one agent lists a home for sale on the MLS then they have to cooperate with all the other members who wish to show the property to their buyers. They also have to offer them some form of compensation. This compensation has no set amount so you can find them to be as low as $0.01 and can go much higher. Some try to add incentives to sell quicker but most commonly you will just see a percentage of the sale price listed as compensation to the agent representing the buyer.
Real Estate Boards, which is who controls the local MLS systems, are often very small geographically. So for instance the Toronto Real Estate Board is not a part of the Barrie Boards MLS. So if you’re searching on a website and see a home listed on one but not on another there is a good chance because its an agent from a different board listing a home for sale in Barrie.
So when you are going to sell your home its important you hire someone who has access to post your home for sale on all the different real estate boards in your area. So if you’re selling your home in Barrie you want to list it both on the Barrie board but also the Toronto Real Estate board.
