A "message" from Message - The mls.ca web-site... and YOU!
The mls.ca web-site is one of Canada’s most popular internet research tools for residential real estate. It is a public site, so anyone with access to a computer – buyers, sellers, or the “just curious” – can view property listings at any time.
The original mls.ca web-site was launched in 1996. The idea was a simple one – to promote MLS® listings online as a convenience to Canadian Consumers buying or selling a home. It started with just over 6,000 listings from only four local real estate Boards. Today it’s hard to imagine the home-buying process without the Internet. In fact, a 2003 consumer survey indicated 85 per cent of Canadians who bought a home started the process on the Internet. The same survey reported even those not buying a home used the Internet to “stay in touch” with the housing market.
The mls.ca web-site is an advertising vehicle
That helps REALTORS® market your property
To literally a worldwide market.
In 2004 alone, more than 650,000 residential listing were posted on mls.ca representing almost 90 per cent of all MLS® properties in Canada. The listings on the web-site come from the MLS® system database of most local real estate Boards across Canada. The listings are updated once every 24 hours with information provided by the local Boards and Associations. This information includes only a very basic listing description, photographs, and contact information.
The mls.ca is not a MLS® system, and does not display all of the detailed listing information associated with a property in the local real estate Board’s database. Rather, the web-site is an advertising vehicle that helps REALTORS® market a property. Every month, an average of almost two million unique visitors visits the mls.ca web-site. Each unique visitor, on average, visits the site three times a month and spends an average of 20 minutes per visit. (Source: 2005 average data, ComScore Media Metrix)
If you’re buying a property, use the mls.ca web-site as a resource, but remember your REALTOR® can provide local market expertise or market conditions, along with the additional data available from the MLS® system database of the local real estate Board.
If you’re selling, ask your REALTOR® about marketing opportunities available by posting you property on the mls.ca web-site.
Please note that commercial and investment properties are posted on the icx.ca web-site.
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Hugh Message - www.HughMessage.com
Macdonald Realty 1st Pioneer
22424 Fraser Highway, Langley, BC V3A 8N3