Canadian Real Estate Simplified: MLS Listings
Buying or selling property in today’s hot Canadian market can be challenging even for the most seasoned professional. Luckily, MLS Listings greatly simplify the process.
Although costs vary in Canadian cities, the average cost of owning a home is approximately $400,000 CAD. Although sales are down in certain cities, others, such as Ottawa and Montreal are experiencing a surge in property sales, due to their relative affordability. Despite struggles, the outlook for the 2019 Canadian real estate market is believed to be stable.
Toronto is expected to experience 2.4% economic growth in both 2019 and 2020, while Halifax is expected to experience 2.6% in 2020. Montreal is expected to grow 1.6% from 2020-2023, Saskatoon at 1.7%, Quebec City at 1.6%, and Edmonton at 2.3% in the same time period. This numbers mean a good outlook for the real estate market.
Do not hesitate to pursue the various Canadian MLS listings and contact a real estate agent or broker today.
MLS Listings Defined
MLS Listings or Multiple Service Listings, are services used by a group of real estate brokers. The listings allow the group members to see each other’s listings and show all properties for sale by the affiliated brokers.
By consolidating and sharing this information, the buying and selling processes are simplified.
MLS can also be defined as an online real estate property database.
MLS Systems are operated by Canadian real estate boards and associations.
Benefits of MLS Listings
MLS Listings give more exposure to a real estate broker or agent selling a property and more options to the broker or agent representing a buyer.
Competing brokers and agents work together to achieve the common goal of helping their buyers find their perfect property and helping their sellers sell their premises.
MLS Listings Canada
Various MLS Listings can be found on the internet. For example, Realtor.ca offers Canada’s largest selection of MLS Listings. It is important to keep in mind that Realtor is not an MLS system, although it is one of Canada’s most trusted real estate platforms. It was created by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) to give Canadian realtors increased exposure. It combines various MLS systems for maximum exposure.
The MLS trademark and logo are owned by CREA.
Realtor.ca offers a handy search option of Residential or Commercial properties.
When searching for Residential properties, users can easily explore by city, neighbourhood, or MLS number. This is further broken down into minimum and maximum price ranges, and desired number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
Additional filters, such as property type, building type, transaction type, land size, listing date, open houses, and keyword search are also available.
For Commercial properties, users can easily search by city, neighbourhood, or MLS number as well. In addition, search options for minimum and maximum price, building size, and land size exist as well. Further filters include property type, transaction type, keyword, and date listed.
National MLS Listings
The Data Distribution Facility(CREA DDF) is considered a Canadian national MLS. Established by CREA in 2012, CREA DDF allows real estate brokers and agents to display their listings.
This national pool of property listings assists real estate professionals by exposing their listing to wider audiences and streamlining syndication to third-party websites.
It encourages Canadian real estate professionals to share their listings and services. By being available to a wider audience, properties can be bought and sold in a much quicker timeframe.
Additional benefits include the ability to decide exactly where agents and brokers would like their listings to appear, as well as quick updates.
Real Estate Board MLS Listings
Each Canadian province and city have their own real estate board with MLS listings, which belongs to The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
For example, British Columbia is represented by the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) and contains 11 real estate boards.
In Ontario, the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) represents 38 real estate boards and 78,000 realtors. These are divided among Central, Eastern, North-eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Ontario.
In Manitoba, the Manitoba Real Estate Association (MREA) represents over 2,100 real estate professionals.
MLS Listings Without a Real Estate Agent
Although it is not advisable, it is possible to list on MLS without a real estate agent. The property is listed as “FSBO,” or for sale by owner. However, these often fail for various reasons, such as incorrectly pricing a property, lacking marketing and exposure, and not knowing how to properly close a deal. A real estate agent or broker ensures that these issues will never arise.
MLS listings help greatly simplify and streamline the buying and selling process in the real estate market. Contact a real estate agent or broker today for more information.
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