Whether you’re a seasoned real estate investor or someone evaluating investment opportunities, accurate property information is vital to your success. Without reliable information on what a property is worth, you won’t land many deals, and you definitely won’t make a profit. So how do you find out how much properties are worth without guessing? The insights you’re looking for are on the MLS. To make sure you know where to find the data you need, let’s take a look at what the MLS is and several ways you can leverage this data when you’re evaluating properties and looking for investment opportunities.
What is MLS data?
The national MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, is a database of property listings across the United States. The MLS began as a way for real estate professionals to more easily connect buyers and sellers within a certain area. Because it’s meant for professionals, it’s not possible for most individuals to access the MLS. By combining MLS data with information from a variety of sources, BatchLeads helps wholesalers and investors make data-driven decisions.
MLS data is updated regularly by the seller, which means that its data is some of the most up-to-date you can hope to find. That makes it one of the best ways to generate leads as a real estate investor. One of the most important pieces of information you can get from the MLS is the status of a property.
What is MLS status?
The MLS lists properties under certain status designations to indicate where the property is in the selling process. This can help prospective buyers understand if the seller would consider an offer based on whether they have already accepted another.
Let’s review a few MLS status definitions. Active indicates the property is on the market and accepting offers, whereas Pending means the seller has already accepted another offer and set a closing date. A property with a Sold status has closed its sale, and one that is Canceled is being delisted.
Does BatchLeads provide MLS data?
BatchLeads provides property data from numerous sources, including the national MLS. Because we’ve been providing MLS data for years, we have the data processing experience to know how best to use it. That means we’re able to cross-reference it with additional data points (e.g. county assessments) to maintain highly accurate property data.
Rather than relying on a single source, BatchLeads uses a proprietary blend of data to provide estimated prices for properties sold in non-disclosure states. We evaluate data from multiple sources with our advanced data engineering capabilities so we can continually deliver some of the highest-quality property data in the industry.
How can I use MLS data?
Because the MLS is an accurate source for a host of key property details, it can help you improve how you identify and evaluate property. One of the most common ways the data is used is to find comps, which is the practice of comparing a property against others nearby in order to more accurately identify a property value.
Since properties recently listed on the MLS likely used multiple sources to establish a listing price, you can use that data in your property evaluation. BatchLeads’ proprietary data engineering process combines MLS data with additional data sources so you can be certain you’re seeing the most accurate and recently updated valuation available.
You can also use MLS data to find distressed properties, which can be excellent investment opportunities because they may be undervalued, especially if they are in hot markets. Properties that have been listed on the national MLS for more than 90 days might be distressed, and it’s worth looking into them in more detail.
Summary
Whether you’re in a non-disclosure state, a hot market that’s hard to keep pace with, or simply looking for a better way to evaluate real estate property, BatchLeads’ can help you increase accuracy and work faster. We pull accurate, frequently-updated information from the national MLS and additional sources to provide you with the best property data and insights available.
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