World's First Wiki MLS Definition and Disclosure.

As always, everything dealing with real estate is full of disclosures.

First of all, the "MLS" stands for "Multiple Listing Service." See Wikipedia definition for MLS.

With permission, as explained by Dave Phillips CEO Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors:
"An MLS is, at the roots, a cooperative agreement between brokers. FranklyMLS is not an MLS. Your site is a marketing site that is populated by MLS data. Since the purpose of your site is NOT to establish a cooperative agreement between brokers, it is not an MLS. The lines have been blurred by NAR's lack of ability to copyright MLS, but that is something you already understand."

So brokers are allowed access to an "IDX" feed from the raw MLS data to redisplay "most" of that data on their website. Oftentimes with their logo on each page, making it look like THEY are listing each property, and in the fine print it says "Listing courtesy of" the actual listing company, see example here.

Consumers do NOT technically have DIRECT access to the MLS itself. Why? Well out of the 650 fields, there are about 5 that are blocked including: Realtor Remarks (vs Internet Remarks that you see), Owner's name & phone number, Showing Instructions (ie call first, or have cat, or "after 12"), and the buyer agent offered commission.

Also maybe 5 in 60,000 listings locally are for some reason or another (by request) NOT be published on public websites.

So FranklyMLS.com is NOT an "MLS" Instead it displays 99.99% of the MLS.

Why all the silly disclosure? Well some higher ups are starting to mandate that we can't use the word MLS since it is "misleading." Do you feel mislead? But now that I have disclosed everything, so we should be ok. Also the Realtor Magazine even recommended that Realtors use MLS in their domain (see article), and they don't have it trademarked, and if they stop us from using "MLS," that means Non-Realtors CAN still use MLS in their advertising. See FreeTheMLS.com for more details.

As for exactly what the WIKI part is all about, read this blog post that explains all the features of this site: http://blog.franklyrealty.com/2008/04/wiki-mls.html

Thanks, and don't forget the feedback.

Frank Borges LLosa- Founder, Owner FranklyMLS.com