MLS.ca vs. the Rise of Other Listing Sites (or Let Them Eat Cake)
After a night of investigating some new website stuff, a new spam filter for the blog, some interesting new prospects for playing flash video, an overall assessment of website performance… I got to thinking about a common thread in many different real estate blogs. Articles with titles like:
- Big Changes at Zillow.com - Are they becoming a national MLS? - from the Ubertor Blog
- Google Implements Local Search Results - from Future of Real Estate Marketing
I got to wondering WHY MLS.ca seems to have lost in real estate searches to Google and others. So I did a little looking around, I went over to MLS.ca do do a little checking. Now I realize real estate agents do not use MLS.ca to do searches, and that may be why nothing has been done about it. Here are a few of the website atrocities I noticed:
- Load time from the time I typed “mls.ca” into my browser, until the time I had relevant search results for properties in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver was an astounding 40 seconds. As a reference, I typed “Kitsilano Real Estate” into google and was presented 109,000 search results in less than 1 second.
- Ease of use Count them, 5 maps I had to click on!
- The British Columbia portion of a map of Canada.
- Then click on “Vancouver - Lower Mainland” on a map of BC.
- Next (when it loaded), I got to choose “Greater Vancouver”, I thought “Great! finally the area I want!”.
- Wrong! Assuming that I am immigrating to Vancouver from say, Toronto (some say escaping rather than immigrating) I needed to determine if Kitsilano is in VW, VE, BU or RI.
- That aside, after choosing VW, I finally get to choose between KT, FA, AR or gag me now…
I feel sorry I had to write all that. You probably didn’t read this far! I wouldn’t.
So Why did I have to click on 5 maps, then select my property search criteria just to see listings!
Before someone points out the “Advanced Search” page on MLS.ca would have been quicker, I will try to recall the the last time I clicked on the advanced search link in google. Never! Why? Because I don’t have to.
It is not too late, some basic site redesign, speed enhancements and a proper marketing effort could save MLS.ca. The call for change might have to come from the people who don’t use it, the Real Estate Agents.
By vOpenhouse
March 1st, 2007 at 11:51 am
Why would you worry about mls.ca dying? Perhaps try taking a look at http://www.mls.ca/robots.txt and you see that they don’t really care about Google or other search engines.
My understanding is that mls.ca is the consumer side of the MLS. Why would Realtors use MLS.ca when they have much better tools available through their boards? The information on mls.ca is just a small sub-set of what’s available on the real MLS.
Where mls.ca fails is at a marketing tool for real estate agents. It fails because it really isn’t that good as a search tool. How to save mls.ca? I wouldn’t bother. mls.ca was paid for by agents through their fees. Regardless if mls.ca existed or not, the fees would still be there. From where I stand, it’s been paid for by many, like taxes, so it is very unlikely that a significant number of agents will push for change. It’s just not bad enough for enough agents to care.
That doesn’t mean that there isn’t opportunity for somebody to come along and introduce something better. I just haven’t seen it yet.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Thanks Ben,
You raise some good points, while mls.ca may not prohibit the spidering of its pages, the policy as it has been explained to me is that people are not supposed to link to pages on the site. Without the incoming links how would a serch engine find the page?
Further, calling MLS.ca dead and not caring is like the proverbial Baby and the Bathwater Scenario. You have what should be a really good tool for real estate marketing, something that adds value to real estate agents across the country. My argument would be that you would want to improve the service, thus adding even more value, or at least not allowing the service to devalue further.
Best of all, since most of the tough work is already done, I think the fixes could be done on a limited budget, quickly and so that they work well.
By the way, you will notice that I did not really address search engine spidering in this article, this was only about website usability.
March 21st, 2007 at 9:47 am
FYI:
In June 2007, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) will launch Version 4.0 of mls.ca, Version 2.0 of ICX.ca and Version 2.0 of the CREA Member Management System (MMS). All three product launches are tied to the implementation of Data Standards, which is scheduled for the end of June 2007.
Highlights of the new versions include:
>an improved Search and a re-designed property listing page for mls.ca;
>a new splash page with search features, a new improved Search page and a re-designed property listing page based on the property type for ICX.ca;
>enhanced REALTOR® search features for both web sites for CREA’s MMS.
Yours truly,
________________________________________
Mark Annable, Broker, myrealty.ca (Alberta)
Managing Broker, myrealty.ca (British Columbia)
Broker of Record, myrealty Services Inc., Brokerage (Ontario)
www.myrealty.ca
Sell your own home using the MLS® for 0.5% commission.
April 17th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
the only reason that you have to click on so many thing is so you can limit the listing. if was just to blindly click on vancouver and 5000 houses come. jsut think how much you would complain
May 11th, 2007 at 1:46 am
I agree that limiting the number of search results is the most likely reason someone would make a site that way. If I MLS.ca spit back 5000 listings to a search of mine I would be happy. I may not make it through to listing 5000 before I refined my search terms. I do the same with Google, there is no need to check out each one of the 5,000,000,000 search results a Google query gives you.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:37 am
FYI:
The public mls.ca web site will officially change its name to REALTOR.ca on Monday June 30th, 2008.
mls.ca will continue to operate after June 30, allowing consumers to use its existing mapping.
REALTOR.ca will have interactive mapping, using Microsoft Virtual Earth technology, and will show active listings right on the map, refining the display as the user zooms into an area. The interactive mapping feature will make it more convenient to search neighbourhoods or a specific region. By rolling over a red ‘pin-point’ on the map, a thumbnail of listing details will automatically pop up on screen.
REALTOR.ca will also introduce a streamlined text search. Although the site will still offer the ‘Detailed’ or ‘Advanced’ search option, users will be able to input initial search criteria without the details of an ‘Advanced’ search.
All of the existing mls.ca features will be a part of REALTOR.ca. The REALTOR® map will remain a key part of the web site, but the new layout will make it easier to look for properties and information.
Yours truly,
________________________________________
Mark Annable, Broker, myrealty.ca (Alberta)
Managing Broker, myrealty.ca (British Columbia)
Broker of Record, myrealty Services Inc., Brokerage (Ontario)
www.myrealty.ca
Sell your own home using REALTOR.ca for 0.5% commission.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I never realized just how many people were talking about this issue, and just as unsatisfied with the status quo as I am.
Keep up the good work!
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-Brian
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:25 am
The unfortunate part of upgrading the mls.ca website to the new realtor.ca site is that it is not usable for anyone using a Macintosh computer. I’ve been in the market for a new home for about two months and search frequently, and guess what, I use a Mac exclusively. Now I can’t even search to see what’s available. Who builds a website these days that completely eliminates an operating system?
Nice try, too bad it’s useless.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:26 am
The new realtor.ca site is a total mess. Unlike the PR preceding the launch, not all the old MLS features were retained — the area/neighborhood maps to allow selection of a search area are gone, which is a huge loss — and the user interface is unusable. The Microsoft mapping is slow and clunky to use and the search results are worthless unless you zoom in to the max. It is not easy to use, it is not streamlined, it is everything other than what was promised. I suspect the design might work well for rural areas where there are not a lot of listings, but in an urban setting it is useless.