Cut Out The Middleman and Get Your Own MLS Feed

It may seem like a forgone conclusion that you should have your listings displayed front and center on your website, but some real estate practitioners are finding less value in it these days. While many choose to pay a third-party IDX provider to set up a searchable MLS feed on their sites, this can be expensive.

MLS migration is a common solution for getting listings to display on a personal website, most often involving an IDX company storing MLS data on its servers and migrating that data onto an agent or broker’s website. The agent or broker pays a monthly fee for this feed, which is automatically updated regularly.

But one major drawback to using some IDX platforms is that they don’t give the agent website any of the search engine optimization value of the MLS data. The framed IDX provider is a middle man. It gives you the data to display listings on your site. The framed IDX provider has all of the real raw pages from the MLS on its server, which means it keeps all of the IP addresses, so it gets most of the SEO value. Agents are actually paying framed IDX providers to rob them of SEO value.

Framed IDX vs. Organic MLS Migration

But many realtors still want an MLS feed on their site, so they might be interested in a second option: It’s called organic MLS migration. Companies providing organic MLS migration, such as Realtyna, connect the MLS feed directly to agent sites instead of hosting the data on an IDX server and migrating it from there. Essentially, it eliminates the middle man and reroutes the IP addresses of MLS property pages to agents’ sites so they get all of the SEO value.

Agents also pay only a one-time fee of $1,139 to $1,349, depending on the website platform—for the setup; there are no monthly fees.

Whatever route you choose, it pays to take a thoughtful approach about whether listing feeds make sense for your overall business plan and budget. After all, your goal is to help consumers find not only the listings that most appeal to them but also the trusted agent they want to guide them through the transaction.