Where did RMLS.com Go? What is a Real Estate MLS Good for?
Updated 08/2024
If you are familiar with RMLS, you probably noticed changes in recent years, including where to find it. Yes, the RMLS is still around and as vital as ever. I have been in the Portland real estate market for over 20 years, and the RMLS remains a key tool I use in my real estate transactions.
If you aren’t familiar with the RMLS, you may wonder what it is and why it is so important. In this article, I explain everything you need to know about the RMLS, including who runs it today, where to find it online, and what alternatives should be included in your arsenal. As you’ll learn, using more than one MLS can be important.
What is an RMLS and MLS in Real Estate?
RMLS stands for Regional Multiple Listing Service, an MLS specific to Oregon and Southern Washington. An MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is a private database typically created, maintained, and paid for by real estate professionals that helps real estate agents and other companies to list homes for sale and share the data locally.
Every region in the US has an MLS, and today there are over 600 of them. More require paid membership before a home can be listed on their database.
The History of MLS and RMLS
The first Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was created in the 1800s as a way for real estate brokers to share information about properties for sale and compensate each other for help in selling those properties. The MLS is where These MLS systems consolidate the real estate market and level the playing field for Brokers and home buyers.
In the past, MLS systems were huge phone book-sized volumes. Brokers and home buyers would have to manually flip through them page by page. In today’s digital age, accessing MLS real estate information is easier than ever. National portals, like Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com, take in IDX (feeds from hundreds of local MLS systems that display home-for-sale information across the country). IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange, and simply put, it is the data from the MLS that is shared directly to a variety of sites that display homes for sale. In short, IDX is the mechanism that provides all of the information for homes listed on the market.
The RMLS has existed since 1991, first serving only the Portland metro area and later merging with other counties in Oregon and then southern Washington. Other real estate MLS systems have been around for much longer. RMLS archives over 2 million listings, around 16,000 of which are active.
As of 2023, 17,000 Realtors have access to the RMLS. In the past, the public could search the RMLS directly, just like agents, but with a few features removed (in particular, the public couldn’t see the amount of commission offered to the buyer’s agent or “private remarks”: notes for agents from other agents concerning a particular listing).
Why Are There Multiple MLS Systems?
MLS systems started as local real estate broker cooperatives. As time has gone on, they have evolved independently. Today, there are hundreds of MLS listing systems, even multiples in one state. There are three major MLS systems in Oregon (RMLS, WVMLS, MLSCO), and Washington has at least two (RMLS and NWMLS). Since each MLS in the US works independently in its own defined regions, some even cross into neighboring states.
Life would be easier if one MLS system covered the entire country, but merging them all would be a massive undertaking. Since they work independently, each has developed its own services, rules, and technologies. The differences have also brought some benefits.
● A local MLS offers more specialization in a local market. Every region has unique characteristics, properties, and market conditions, and a local MLS system can better meet these needs by offering more regionally-specific data.
● Real estate laws and regulations can differ between states and jurisdictions. Having separate MLS systems allows for easier compliance and governance.
● Local real estate professionals can have a greater say in how their MLS operates and adapts to local market needs, making each MLS more responsive.
● They create an open marketplace. Multiple MLS systems encourage competition, which ultimately improves each MLS’s services, features, and tech.
Where Did RMLS.com Go?
In 2019, RMLS switched things up and hired the national Internet Data Exchange (IDX) company Homesnap.com to be its public, front-facing search portal. But recently, RMLS went back to providing native data itself via a membership for Realtors and now uses RMLSCentral.com as its landing page for real estate information. RMLS.com at the moment is a broken link and the public (non-members) cannot search RMLS directly.
An IDX is a blend of rules, guidelines, and technology that lets real estate brokers and agents share each other’s listings on their websites and mobile apps. Homesnap is a national IDX provider, much like Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin.com, Trulia.com, Homes.com, and likely any other home search site an interested buyer might be familiar with. An IDX provider does not have direct MLS information but instead offers an interpretation of it from a feed of data coming from the MLS.
Most of the sites a home buyer may search online use IDX to pull information from local MLS systems to display homes for sale. So now, only agents (and other paid MLS subscribers) can access the original RMLS data. In my opinion, this is a shame, as every MLS system has unique data points about its properties for sale that national IDX programs like Homesnap.com or Zillow often miss.
Despite this change, RMLS still exists. While the raw data is not public facing, it is essential in the home selling and buying process. When listing, it is the responsibility of the agent and the home seller to ensure that the data in the RMLS is correct. This is important because all the RMLS data is transmitted to IDX websites. Even though the public can no longer search their database, they can access the RMLS blog on RMLSCentral.com, which provides a wealth of knowledge about the rules of real estate and an in-depth analysis of the current real estate market.
Accessing the actual RMLS site requires a paid membership, expensive enough to typically only be purchased by real estate agents, appraisers, and government officials. However, the blog remains a free resource.
What’s the Next Best Thing to RMLS.com?
A locally developed IDX program, PortlandHomesforSale.com, is the closest representation to RMLS data I’ve found. Like most IDX programs, the site is updated every few minutes so that you don’t miss a thing. But unlike a lot of IDX programs, PortlandHomesforSale.com was built specifically with RMLS in mind. National IDX portals often have to water down specific local MLS information to have a consistent user interface across the country for their national platform. In contrast, a local IDX site built for a local MLS can reflect the data as specifically as possible, essentially creating a custom fit.
PortlandHomesforSale.com combines the functionality of a typical real estate search engine with the high-end functionality of the RMLS, allowing users to search for their ideal home without sacrificing any of their search criteria. As I mentioned above, many sites miss some of the IDX data.
PortlandHomesforSale.com provides access to all of the specific features you would want in a search. It accomplishes this by combing the MLS and ensuring that every data point is included in its intuitive search engine. This makes PortlandHomesforSale.com a great resource for home buyers and a powerful tool for real estate agents. It allows a home buyer to search for potential new homes without sacrificing any available data instead of relying on the generic search results of traditional home search engines like Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, Realtor.com, etc. As an added benefit, it also prevents the identifying information of home buyers from being sourced out to multiple agents, which is common on typical property search websites when saving a search or favoriting a home.
Why List a Home on Multiple MLSs?
Here are reasons why to use more than one MLS:
● Most Realtors in Oregon (or any other state) are only a paid member of one MLS system, though multiple MLS systems exist in their state. These same Realtors all typically use their MLS of choice to search for homes for their buying clients. So if a selling Realtor puts a home in multiple MLS systems, it will be viewed and shared by more Realtors in that same state. Realtors have to be licensed in a particular state to earn commission there, and so it makes sense for a selling Realtor to list their clients’ homes in every MLS in the state they’re selling in.
● Listing on several MLS systems ensures the home will be seen by the widest possible audience, benefitting the seller and Realtor.
● The MLS will give showing instructions specific to that home and provide the interested buyers’ agents with the seller’s agent and brokerage contact information, making it easier for them to promote and show the listing to their home buying clients.
Looking to buy or sell a home in Oregon or Washington?
Our top 1% buyers team would love to talk with you about your needs. Whatever part of Oregon or Washington you’re searching in, we are members of multiple MLS systems. We have access to coming soon listings only available to MLS members that we can share with you. Get in touch with us at 503-773-0000 today.
Our top 1% sellers team lists every clients’ home in multiple MLS systems. This is in addition to paying for professional photography, 3D, design consultation, and more. Read more about what our seller’s agents can do for you, or simply give us a call today at 503-714-1111.
