Why A National MLS Would be a Mistake

There has been much discussion lately about eliminating the local MLS (ours is Bryan-College Station MLS) and going with a national MLS. The proponants of this claim that it will eliminate worries about finding properties online and allow agents to show properties beyond their boundries.

I for one will stick to selling Bryan and College Station homes (and the surrounding areas). I feel like the pundits have some very solid points and a lot of negative points. I believe that the people that are for this measure (most of them are fellow Realtors) have a very minimal understanding of what a real estate agent truly brings to a transaction. A move to a national MLS will make us simple door openers, nothing more and nothing less.

I don't sell in Austin or Houston or Huntsville for one very good reason...I don't know the area. I would hate to sell a property to folks and then find out that it's in an area that's known for foundation failure (Houston and other areas have actual fault lines), or that there is a sewage treatment facility nearby that we didn't happen to smell that day, but that one or two months out of the year it's quite noticable.

Real estate is local. I've blogged before about the need to realize that the news in real estate is on the national level and that it looks very different here in Bryan/College Station. The same can be said for what sells here. In Michigan, where I came from originally (but, as they say, got down here as fast as I could...), it was desirable to have the master bedrooms upstairs. Heat, after all, rises and it was a nice way to maximize that and keep your bedroom cozy. Not so here as that feature all but sometimes kills a sale. In Huntsville, just miles from College Station, it is extremely common for slab failures to occur, and it doesn't affect the price that the home sells for. Not so in Bryan or College Station, with those listings even with a corrected issue taking much longer to sell and accepting typically, a much lower price per square foot compared to homes without issues.

How would you like a real estate agent to show you a house in College Station and not mention that the upstairs master will be an issue for resale? How about one from Austin that doesn't know that south College Station has traffic issues (currently being resolved) and that it could take double the time to travel to the university from one location compared to another? What about listing a house with a Houston agent, who doesn't understand the impact that proximity to Texas A&M University plays in home pricing and fails to price the house properly costing you thousands of dollars?

Real estate is a local venture and keeping it local is the best plan. Now, that isn't to say that a property in Caldwell shouldn't have some presence on the Austin MLS, or a property in Anderson shouldn't be listed in Houston MLS. For this I think a simple plan of cooperative listings would work well.

When buying or selling ensure that your real estate dollars work to your advantage! Use a local Realtor!!!