Questions and Answers: How Do I Find My Home On The Internet?
In preparation for a meeting with a client, I decided it would be a good idea to show them all the places that their home is promoted online.
In the Washington, DC and Baltimore metropolitan areas, Metropolitan Information Regional Systems, Inc.(better known as "MRIS") is the local multiple listing service (also known as the "MLS"). On their website, you can find a good explanation of just what an MLS is and how it works. While the MLS is the real estate professional core tool for listing promotion, it's the starting point from which information propagates out over the Internet to the many of the websites visited by people searching for a home.
One of the first places I looked for 7760 Glen Avenue in Pasadena Maryland was in Homes Database, the public website operated by MRIS. Since Keystone feeds Matrix, the "insider system" I use to search for property directly in the MLS, it made sense to look there first.
7760 GLEN AVE, PASADENA, MD 21122 (AA7541154)
Then next place that I look for their home was at the national website operated by Coldwell Banker, the brokerage that I am affiliated with.
I also checked the local website operated by Coldwell Banker, the franchise that I am affiliated with.
7760 GLEN AVE, PASADENA, MD 21122 (AA7541154)
I also posted a video tour of the property on YouTube.com.
For Sale - 7760 Glen Avenue, Pasadena, Maryland 21122 (AA7541154)
One of the many other publicly operated websites is Realtor.com, the Official Site of the National Association of REALTORS®.
7760 Glen Ave, Pasadana, MD 21122
This is a good start for the list of the places on the Internet where the owners of 7760 Glen Avenue in Pasadena Maryland might find there home, but, it's not exhaustive. So, I thought I'd do a Google search for 7760 Glen Avenue. There were over 16,000 results found (click here to see the results).
The Google search results were interesting. I immediately recognized the websites for Weichert, REALTOR.com, Homesdatabase.com, YouTube.com, and many other listing aggregation websites.
One questions that I am often asked is if can I change such-and-such on this-or-that website. The answer is usually "no". The only website where I can make changes to listing is in the MLS, which is the point of origin most, if not all, data that propagates out over the Internet. While I'd like to be able to change information on Realtor.com or Zillow.com or even Yahoo.com, those websites are operated by other companies, the data is shared with their websites using an Information Data Exchange (often called an "IDX") over which I have little control and even less influence.
Instead of navigating the highways and by-ways of the open road to find the home of their dreams, buyers now navigate their way around on the Internet to find homes for sale. From the comfort of their home, without a penny of gas money wasted driving around in neighborhoods, the Internet has changed the way in which buyers search for a new home.
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