The mls.ca public web site, which is now one of Canada’s most popular web sites, is sponsored by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and was launched in 1996. As the Internet research gateway to all residential real estate in Canada, the mls.ca web site attracts an average of about three million unique visitors each month.
Comscore, an independent research and audit company that tracks internet use, and web site traffic, reports each visit to mls.ca averages 12.1 minutes and that 57.7% of users were female and 42.3% of users were male.
Did you know that mls.ca is not the same as the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) system?
MLS® is only available to REALTORS® and not publicly available on the Internet.
The mls.ca website acts as an advertising vehicle to help REALTORS® market their clients’ properties to a worldwide market by displaying a limited selection of basic information about available listings from the local real estate Board’s database.
To avoid public confusion around the use of “mls”, the website name and address is now scheduled to be changed to REALTOR.ca on June 30th. At that time new features like streamlined search capabilities, and interactive mapping using Microsoft Virtual Earth application, which will make it more convenient to search neighbourhoods or a specific region, will be provided to consumers on REALTOR.ca.
Do you think this new Canadian website is likely to be confused with the official site for the National Association of REALTORS®: http://www.realtor.com/?
The public mls.ca website will now officially change its name to REALTOR.ca on Wednesday, July 2, 2008. The original launch date was delayed due to some concerns raised by various real estate boards and associations.