What is the MLS?
MRIS® stands for Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. MRIS is the premiere online real estate information service for nearly 60,000 real estate professionals in Maryland, Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and parts of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. In 2007, MRIS facilitated the sale of more than 120,000 properties, translating to more than $131-million in daily sales volume.
What is a Multiple Listing Service (MLS)? An MLS is a shared computerized database containing all of the properties (listings) for sale by participating real estate brokerages in a given geographical area. It is a business to business forum created to enable real estate professionals to publish and distribute information relating to properties they list for sale, and to research and present property-related information to their clients seeking to buy real estate properties.
In addition to the descriptive information provided by each listing broker, an MLS collects and makes all of the background available on a given property-including tax records, amenities, price, selling and listing contacts, photos and maps--available to its members. An MLS is responsible for keeping the information timely and accurate, and for providing an environment for sharing this information among its subscribers. In addition, as a business operating in the highly competitive and fast-moving real estate environment, the MLS also is responsible for providing value-add features that help its subscribers market their listings.
Cooperation is key to the success of an MLS. Licensed brokers and agents agree to cooperate in sharing their information with one another as an integral component of their participating in an MLS. When brokers and agents cooperate, consumers benefit. When real estate practitioners share their listings with one another, they are able to gain massive exposure for that property through the MLS, and the client-consumers trying to buy property benefit from the practitioners' cooperation by getting access to the listings of the various participating professionals - giving them access to more choices. Knowing that listings originate with licensed brokers provides a degree of accountability for the substance and accuracy of the listing, since the legal and professional rules governing the real estate professional's business, as well as the MLS rules and regulations, apply to each real estate professional listing properties on the MLS.
So, MRIS is the name of an MLS? Yes, in fact, MRIS is the largest MLS in the nation. MRIS is owned by 25 Shareholder REALTOR® Associations spanning most of Maryland, Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, and parts of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, 22,000 square miles in all.
MRIS' "customers" (licensed real estate brokers, agents and appraisers) Currently have access to almost 100,000 active listings, an archive of 1.75-million "comparable" and "sold" properties and nearly 5-million public records containing tax assessment and sales information about properties throughout the region.
More than 100 people are employed by MRIS in specialties ranging from Internet Technology, Product Development, Project Management, and Data Integration to Customer Support, Compliance, Marketing, Human Resources, Communications and Education.