One of the big issues buyers and buyer's agents face when the head out the door to tour prospective properties, is does the property really meet their criteria?  There is nothing worse than opening the door on a property and realizing instantly that you just wasted gallons of gas and precious time on a home that isn't even close to what you are looking for.

Unfortunately not every agent posts pictures or descriptions of a property that give you an accurate sense of the property condition.  For buyers and their agents in Northern Virginia there is an IDX site with direct data from the Metropolitan Regional Information System (MRS) that offers something a bit more.

FranklyMLS offers thousands of photos and comments tied to MLS listings from buyer's agents who have toured the property before you.  The agents are from dozens of brokerages around the Northern Virginia area and offer their own independent evaluation (aka opinion) of the property.

Today as I was getting ready to show properties in Parkfairfax and Fairlington I made sure to check FranklyMLS before heading out the door.  None of the properties on our list had been reviewed and a couple of them didn't have photos so the buyers and I had to guess whether the properties were going to meet their criteria. 

To learn more about some of the other great functionality of FranklyMLS you can read Frank Llosa, Broker/Owner of Frankly Realty own post about some of the recent additions to the site.  At the VAReBar Camp in Fredericksburg Frank announced the addition of MLS data from the Charlottsville area as well.

If you are a buyer or buyer's agent in Northern Virginia check out the site before you head out the door.  You might save yourself some time and if you are like me with your camera always at the ready you can link your photo albums of the vacant properties you have toured as well.