UPDATE… We published an updated version of this article. You can read it here
MLS of course stands for “Multiple Listing Service”, as in the big, honkin’ database of real estate information Realtors have access to.
And in case you’re wondering, no, I’m not talking about the real estate listings anyone can view at Realtor.com or through the “MLS Search” on most Real Estate Companies’ websites. Sure, those search portals have the MLS as their source of data – but it’s not THE MLS — the data isn’t nearly as robust or in-depth.
The fact of the matter is, when it comes to doing top-shelf market and/or property research – whether you’re analyzing values, looking for “bleeding edge” listings, reviewing “sold comps” in detail, looking up pendings, etc. etc… nothing beats the Realtor’s MLS.
The level of real estate data that can be searched, filtered and manipulated is simply unparalleled…
…Which is exactly why access to it is such a sought after thing. Savvy investors understand this, and it’s a big reason why so many investors get licensed and join the local Realtor Board themselves. Because…
You Can’t Get MLS Access Without Being a Realtor…Right????
Hmmmmm…let’s think on this one for a moment. Well that’s the word on the street, isn’t it? That only Realtors – that is, licensed real estate agents who are also active, dues paying members of the local Board of Realtors – can get access.
But would it surprise you to know that it’s actually fairly common for non-licensed investors to find ways to gain direct access to the MLS? Sure, it can take a little creativity and some gumption, but we have our ways.
To this point, here’s an article by fellow blogger and KISS Flipper Kelly, originally published on her blog Kelly Flippin Cali. I thought it was so good, I asked her if I could reprint it here for you guys. Enjoy…
“How to Get MLS Access Without a License”
So, excuse the non-perfect punctuation. Sometimes I just get typing and forget things like punctuation and capitalization. Just don’t red pen me. I am not like JP, I don’t write perfect copy.
I think first off, you have to have confidence, assertiveness and sincerity at the same time because confidence and assertiveness can sometimes look a lot like arrogance. Without the confidence you look wishy washy and needy. You have to know up front what you are offering the Agent in return for this precious MLS access. I like having my own unlimited access and paying for it, than using someone else’s with limited access.
It is so simple! I had 2 different approaches. It takes some work, but you can do it! If I can do it, you can do it!
The Craigslist Approach:
The Craigslist ad was really Craig Fuhr’s idea that I gleaned off of the last call with JP from REItips.com. He was targeting Indiana fresh.
My ads, 2 of them, placed in Real Estate and Real Estate Services…
$1 RE Agent Wanted
California Cash investor working in ‘insert city here’ with single family homes seeks investor friendly agent to work with. Please call me now.
Call XXX XXX XXXX
My Other Approach:
First, you call Realtors from Keller Williams (because they are the most investor friendly.) Explain your strategy and tell them you value their time and would like to do your own homework upfront which takes about 40 to 80 hours. (The majority of my responses were something like, “I don’t have a problem doing the homework and sending it to you.”)
So then ask them for a list of all of the ‘solds’ in the last 60 days for the county, or the biggest area of the town or city of research. From there identify the hotbeds or areas of the most activity.
Meanwhile, on your own, without telling the Agent, contact the Association of Realtors or whoever controls the MLS…
Ask to speak to the commercial department or the administrator for the MLS. Tell them that you have been working with (insert agent’s name here) and you both talked about obtaining MLS access as an unlicensed assistant.
Ask for an email of the form for him to sign to begin or if it is located online.
Ask what the log-on requirements are. Is it just username and password or little key fob deal that changes numbers every 60 seconds like California?
Ask what the fees are and how they are billed, i.e., quarterly, yearly, through the broker or can they be made online through the MLS website via your credit card.
Ask them to email you the rules as well.
If you have the keyfob thing, you need to go into the MLS office and show your ID and they hand you and only you the keyfob.
Ask who to contact when returning the information, if it is email then ask them to include phone and fax. Now you have the MLS contact person information.
After you do your homework using the list of solds, speak to the agent about your findings. (I have identified _____ zipcode as an area I would like to pursue, about what price are your clean REOs in that area?) Then state that there is another at least 60 hours of similar research but you need to use the map function and other things that would just kill trees if they printed it out for you and YOU would rather spend the time on the research and have them spend the time on submitting offers and listing your properties.
Then explain that you have spoken to “insert MLS administrator here” and you have the form for your own unlicensed assistant access and it would save you both so much time once you get that started.
BE ASSERTIVE. Don’t say, “if I had my own access” say, “once I get this access.”. Tell them, “I need your signature and I am good to go. It can be revoked at any time, so if for any reason you are not comfortable with this in the future, you can cancel it.” There will be no charge to the Agent or Broker. The Broker might have to sign on the form also.
Once you have your access, go buy either a $20.00 Jamba Juice gift card or a Starbucks gift card and a Silver sharpie pen. Write on the gift card with the silver sharpie pen, Thanks SO much ‘agent’s name’ !! then your name, so the 3 or 4 times they use it, they see your name and smile. Go to their office and have receptionist place in their in box or mail it to the agent.
I think for me, before I had a solid strategy, it was very difficult to build rapport. Now after KISS Flipping and speaking with Bob Norton face to face, I totally know my strategies inside and out and have total confidence!! Without a doubt!! In the course are the steps to take to find private money AND instantly find buyers. I’m not an affiliate, I should be, but if you could swing it, you should, it’s the best money I have ever spent!
GO GET ‘EM!! Let me know how it turns out!
I’m on my way to get an alignment before my trip next week and to sling mud on 4 more old listings.
Chyzle! (translation= see ya)
Kelly
Thanks to Kelly for spelling it all out so well! And of course I welcome anyone else’s thoughts as well…please comment below!
Yesterday, a homeowner returned home to find a “wigged out” man in his house(for sale),in his (the owner’s) new boxer shorts.The stranger was washing his clothes in the laundry, and refused to leave when the owner commaned him to do so. The stranger’s car was in the garage. It ended with the owner firing a shot from his gun, and the policeman picking up the man.They think the man got access to the property through the MLS.Colorado listing agreements are specific about how the property and the details of the transaction will be disclosed to the public. Membership in mls precludes what Kelly suggest, the broker could lose his privileges by doing so. Subverting laws and rules give honest investors a “bad name” and is why today the FBI is looking into ways to kill flipping houses all together. According to the National Mortgage News today, the FBI has determined that flipping is mortgage fraud, indictments to come. Not all deals are fraudulent, but the attitude to subvert written rules is the same attitude that leads to fraud. 80 hours times $8 per hour is $640, this investor should have paid instead of a gift card. MLS charges on an hourly basis plus the monthly access fee.
Nice! I have a realtor that was a friend until I asked him for MLS access. I’ll give this a try with a perfect stranger and probably get better results. So much for friends.
“According to the National Mortgage News today, the FBI has determined that flipping is mortgage fraud,”
How exactly is flipping in any way related to mortgage fraud? What if there are no mortgages on the property? Makes no sense at all. If we can’t flip houses then all wholesale food stores should be closed down as well.
This is just a case of Realtor Commission wanting a complete monopoly on selling of houses.
.-= Scott Costello´s last blog ..4 Important keys to a Probate Letter =-.
Realtors are scared to death of allowing anyone access to the MLS for one reason. It is the only thing that they bring to the table that has any value. Once they lose control of that, they are done. And, depending on where you live, most of the MLS info can be found quickly from other sources.
All the other duties that they do can easily be outsourced for less money.
Of course this has been their fear for years, that they will lose control and become irrelevant.
Any good realtor will not give out their numbers for anyone to access the MLS! you’re idea that someone should coerce a realtor into giving out their MLS code is ridiculous! you are obviously not a realtor nor will you ever be. Syop with these absurd posts please, your an idiot really.
As a licensed agent how can you want to help or assist anyone to get realtors MLS codes for their use without you? Im not getting that and its illegality is enormous. I have a tremendous amount of class, FYI and I take my profession quite seriously, I am a Broker as well and manage an office for a national real estate company and I belong to 5 MLS systems in order to do my job. No ONE gets my MLS codes and you “teaching” people or buyers how to coerce agents to give it out is wild! WOW! exactly. I have a great FREE website I give out to my lucky buyers that enables them to access MLS info which is legally downloaded to them daily along with mapping, neighborhood info, area pricing so on and so on. No one needs MY MLS codes to get up to date real info on the marketplace. Guess you dont have what I have… too bad, good luck with your scamming the MLS and enabling people who should not have access to have access.. great! good work!
I’m no great defender of real estate agents overall, but this feels unethical. Why not just get your own license?
.-= Bobby´s last blog ..About Us =-.
Wow! That got some strong reactions, didn’t it?! The comments just reinforced to me how valuable MLS access is, and the value of Kelly’s strategy. I view gaining access to the MLS, not as a way to cut out agents, but as a way to perform my own research, avoiding an unwieldy situation. This doesn’t preclude using an agent once the decisions of what to buy and sell have been made. Thanks Kelly and JP
haha.. It’s illegal for an agent to give out their MLS access? Where in the law does it say this in your jurisdiction? It could be a breach of contract between the MLS provider and the broker relationship, but I doubt there’s a statute that specifically prohibits it.
Leslie: You do realize that other people use the MLS for other reasons than to just buy and sell real estate, right?
Well what can I this Leslie chick really got her Lucky Charms pi…. on huh… But remember it’s not personal its just business!!! We are all after our dreams and if I happen to make some Realtor upset on the way, well that is just a sacrifice I am gonna have to make. No offense!
Hey …jp.
Are you an idiot? You didn’t answer that question. LOL!
Now leslie has obviously shown her hand. We have worked with a realtor we trust with access and it was quite a pain. Too many problems to keep them out of trouble so we quit. Wasn’t worth getting them into trouble.
Also, we didn’t ask them to provide access, they offered when we asked the question, “Can we get access to MLS when we are not an agent?” This was truly just asked out of ignorance with no motive behind it. We have since moved on and and yes this is a grey area.
Bet leslie uses the grey areas when she does her taxes! Nothng is really black and white in this world and as long as the realtor is comfortable and you are only using it for your own purposes, i.e. not selling or providing the info to others, what harm is it. They may not like it but it’s not against the law!
leslie must also not be a good realtor since she is spreading false information about flipping. Any good realtor would know the difference in flipping and fraud. Bet leslie doesn’t? When we first started out we tried to avoid the word flip becuase of the negative conotations. Now we specifically use the word to test the kind of reactions we get. This says a lot about the knowldge of the people w are talking to. If they say you need to be careful, then we want to work with them. If they say that is fraud or illegal, we gently educate them and move on to the next. If they say nothing we probe more to see if they have any clue about what they are doing.
Brad
I don’t think Linda and Leslie understand that Investor’s want to do their own research and due diligence. Does a Real Estate Broker/Agent really want to do hours of research each and everyday for the Investor? When we find a deal that meets our criteria we’ll bring it to you to make offer. You make the commission. Sounds like an even trade to me.
Leslie and Linda, don’t hate the players hate the game. This is still a free country and you have a choice not to play.
It is a grey area and do not insinuate how I handle my taxes, smart man! There is Realtor to Reator only information regarding showing instructions etc or combo codes on MLS listing sheets that Real;tors access when they belong to the MLS and that is priviledged information for those with licenses. If a realtor gives out their code and something happens to a home due to that well, sounds to me that its not the best idea, you think? I am a “good” realtor mr. knows so much and do not insinuate again that I am not! This is an ethical issue perhaps not legal… it is wrong, thank you and have a nice day! glad to know there are such smart people out there who know it all!
MLS access for just anyone is hazardous to the seller. Many MLS’s allow access codes, in the non public remarks section of the listing. What kind of agent would give full access to mls to just anyone? As one agent above noted, she can give access to her clients–that access allows a client to get all the information they need without the non public information. In other words much more than you can get with Realtor.com but not personal or non public information about the seller. I certainly would turn in anyone giving “assistant” access to mls to a caller just seeking access to “save the agent time”.
Anyone granting that type of access should be avoided by any buyer “experienced” or not. They will be hazardous to your wealth.
Even with my licenses when I purchase out of area I use the services of an good agent from the area I am purchasing property. Do I have to? NO. But what I don’t know even after doing due diligence could bit me later. It’s better to have avoided a nightmare property than to have gotten a “good???” price on a disaster wishing I had kept my money in my wallet. First question I ask an agent. Do you own rental property? If the answer is “no” then I keep looking.
This angers me to no end as a real estate agent. Encouraging people to lie to get MLS access. That’s real professional of you people. I’m forwarding your article to as many agents as I can.
I am a Realtor/Broker (and RE investor) in Charlotte, NC, and our MLS has a service called “Client Gateway” that provides a goldmine of information to my investor clients without my having to disclose my MLS code. I can pinpoint their preferred area(s), price preferences, agent remarks like “REO” and “Short Sale” and so on. The MLS wizard sends them every listing that meets their requirements, updated daily, on their own private web page. The investor might get 10 to 100 listings; they tell me which 5 to 10 they really like, and then I crunch the numbers on those 5-10. I give them an Excel sheet with asking price, tax value, comps and the last “arms length” price the house sold for. They choose 2 or 3 to look at, and we (I) write up a contract. Greatly reduces my work, but gives the investor some of the “sifting” capability of MLS access.
Nancy