Leaving your real estate platform can mean rebuilding your site, moving your leads and changing pages that Google knows. What you can keep depends on your contract and the files you can export. MLS Import can pull listings into your own WordPress site. Your lead records and page moves need their own plan.
Still deciding if leaving your platform is worth it? See what an all-in-one platform costs next to a plugin that only imports listings.
A vendor-hosted search may use your domain or the vendor’s. Check an open listing before you plan a move. Read the brokerage guide to IDX vendor subdomains to see which address you have and which old links need a plan.
What happens to our website, leads and Google rankings if we leave our real estate platform?
It depends on who holds three things: your domain, your listing pages and your lead list. If the domain is in your name, it comes with you. If your listings sit on the vendor’s site, an iframe or a subdomain, those pages leave with the vendor. Leads come with you only if you export them first.
Here is what usually happens to each piece:
| What you have now | Hosted IDX or all-in-one platform | Import plugin on your own WordPress site |
|---|---|---|
| Your domain | Yours only if it is registered in your name. Check your registrar account. | Yours. The site runs on your own hosting. |
| Listing pages | They leave with the vendor when you cancel. | They stay as WordPress posts. Updates stop. |
| Your own pages (blog, area pages) | Often stuck in the vendor’s site builder. Plan to rebuild them. | They stay. They are normal WordPress pages. |
| Leads | Only what you export before you cancel. | Wherever your forms sent them: your inbox, your theme’s CRM, or a CRM you connected. |
| Buyer listing alerts | They stop. Buyers have to sign up again on the new site. | They stop when updates stop. |
| Google rankings | A dip is normal. Your 301 redirects decide how big it gets. | Same. New listing addresses need redirects. |
What happens to my listing pages when I leave?
With a hosted IDX, your listing pages go away. They were never on your site. Google sees those addresses disappear, so any search traffic they had is gone. With MLS Import, each listing is a page on your own domain, like yoursite.com/property/123-main-street. If you cancel, the pages stay in WordPress, but they stop updating. Sold homes stay up at the old price until you remove them. So clear them out before your last paid day while the tools still work. See Cancelling MLSImport.
What happens to my website and listings if I leave my brokerage?
Your listings usually stay with your old brokerage. Your website goes with you only if the domain and hosting are in your name. Your IDX feed has to be approved again under your new broker. Read your agreement with your broker before you give notice, because it decides most of this.
Do my listings come with me when I switch brokerages?
No, not by default. The seller signs with the brokerage, not with you. The old broker has to release a listing before the seller can sign again with you at your new firm. Some brokers say yes. Some say no or ask for a referral fee.
- Deals under contract usually close and pay through the old brokerage.
- Ask for the payout terms for pending deals in writing.
- Look for clauses that stop you from contacting the brokerage’s clients for a while.
Rules differ by state and by contract. See the NVAR legal hotline answer for one example.
Does my website come with me when I leave my brokerage?
It comes with you only if you own it. A page on the brokerage site stays with the brokerage. A site you pay for, on a domain in your name, moves with you.
| What you have now | When you leave |
|---|---|
| A page on the brokerage site (brokerage.com/your-name) | Stays with the brokerage. |
| A site on the brokerage’s platform or a vendor account in the broker’s name | Usually stays behind. Ask what you can export. |
| Your own WordPress site, domain in your name | Moves with you. Pages, blog posts and area guides stay. |
One agent put it this way: “I owned the domain but I didn’t have total control.” Check who holds the domain login and the hosting account, not just whose name is on the bill.
Does my IDX feed keep working after I leave my brokerage?
No, plan for a new approval. Your MLS approves the listing feed for a member and a named website, and your broker usually has to sign. When you move, your new broker signs a new request. Some boards answer in days. Some take weeks.
With MLS Import, the plugin itself is not tied to your broker or your domain. There is no license key to move. You keep the same MLS Import account and the same $49 a month subscription. When your new credentials arrive, enter them in the MLS connection settings and check that the connection banner turns green. MLS Import cannot apply for you or ask your MLS to approve you. See who needs to hold the MLS credentials.
What do I change on my site the day I switch brokerages?
Change your brokerage name everywhere first. Then fix your import tasks so the right listings show up.
- Put your new brokerage name, logo and required notices on every page. Many states require the broker’s name on agent ads, and your website counts.
- Change the office code on your import task. Your new office has its own code. See importing one agent’s or one office’s listings.
- Update the exclude filter on your wider market task so your new office’s listings belong to one task only.
- Remove listings from your old office that you may no longer show. Use the delete tool on the Tools tab. See deleting properties safely.
- In standalone mode, update the Office tab on your agent profile and the company phone and email in Design Settings. See agent profiles in standalone mode.
- Send a test lead from a listing and check which inbox gets it.
Ask your new broker to sign the feed request in your first week. The approval is usually the slowest step. Your old feed may stop the day your license moves, so a quick request means fewer days with no listings showing up.
Checklist before you leave your brokerage
- Find out who registered your domain and who pays for hosting. Move both into your name if needed.
- Export your blog posts, area pages and photos you have the right to use.
- Export your contacts, if your agreement lets you.
- Plan to leave the brokerage email and phone number behind if they belong to the company.
- Ask your MLS what your new broker must sign for your feed.
- Get the release terms for your listings and pending deals in writing.
These steps are not legal advice. For a dispute over listings, pay or contacts, talk to a real estate attorney or your state Realtor association.
Have you switched brokerages with your own site? Tell us what you wish you had done first.
What happens to my leads when I leave?
Your leads stay with the old platform unless you export them. Do this before you give notice. Ask for a CSV file, and export more than names: notes, tags, lead source, saved searches and opt-in records. MLS Import moves listings, not leads, so you import the old leads into your CRM yourself. Test a small batch first. On the new site, decide where new leads go before day one. In MLS Import’s standalone mode, lead forms email the listing’s agent or your company address, and nothing is stored in WordPress. That means your mailbox is the record. To keep leads in a CRM, use your theme’s CRM (WpResidence has one) or connect one. See Where property leads are sent and Sending property leads to a CRM.
What are the risks of moving from hosted IDX to imported listings?
The biggest risk is that the work your IDX vendor did quietly becomes your job. That covers following board rules, keeping listings up to date, taking sold homes down, and keeping the site fast. Most problems don’t show up as errors. Listings just go stale. Here is each risk and what you can check before you switch.
| Risk | What can go wrong | How to check it |
|---|---|---|
| Board rules | Listings a seller kept off the internet end up on your site | Open every import task and check both internet display flags |
| Auto update | Listings stop updating and nobody notices | Use a real server cron and check Import History |
| Sold homes | Sold or expired homes stay up as active | Check that the daily cleanup is running |
| Hosting | Imports stop partway or the site gets slow | Check memory and time limits before you buy hosting |
| Leads and alerts | Old leads and buyer alerts stay with the old vendor | Export everything before you give notice |
| Rankings dip and old links break | List your old pages and set up 301 redirects |
Who is responsible for MLS rules after we leave our IDX vendor?
You are. The site owner answers to the MLS under the license you signed. MLS Import gives you the settings for your board’s rules, but it does not apply them for you. Three things need checking:
- The two internet display flags. One means the seller doesn’t want the listing online at all. The other means the street address can’t be shown. Setting a flag to “no” does not hide those listings. It removes the filter, so opted-out listings get pulled in too.
- Every import task, not only the first one. The task the setup wizard makes has the “whole listing” flag turned on. A task you build by hand needs it set.
- Attribution and the disclaimer. Most boards want the listing office on every listing and their exact disclaimer. Those fields come in only if you select them.
Ask your board for its display rules in writing before you launch. Read MLS display rules: attribution, internet flags and protected data and MLS/IDX compliance rules for WordPress sites.
What happens if our listings stop updating?
Your site keeps showing old prices and old statuses until someone fixes it. MLS Import checks your MLS every hour, but that check runs on the WordPress schedule, called cron. On a quiet site, the WordPress schedule only runs when someone visits. Some hosts also stop long jobs partway through.
Common reasons listings stop updating:
- Auto update is off on the import task.
- The task never finished its first import.
- WordPress cron is turned off and no server cron replaces it.
- The web server cuts off long runs.
- The MLS connection is no longer valid, for example after your MLS agreement expired.
Set up a real server cron before launch, and keep the cron checklist handy.
Will sold and expired homes stay on our site?
No, not while auto update is working. A daily cleanup removes listings that have left the MLS. If cron stops, the cleanup stops too, and sold homes stay up as active. One thing to know: if you turn a display flag on later, listings already pulled in stay put, because they are still in the MLS. You delete those yourself. See how daily reconciliation works.
Can our hosting handle all the listings?
It depends on how many listings you pull. Shared hosting is fine for a few hundred. Tens of thousands need a VPS (a private server) or a managed WordPress plan.
- Memory of at least 256MB. 512MB is better for big imports.
- A long PHP time limit. Some cheap hosts cap it at 30 or 60 seconds and won’t raise it.
- One import task brings in at most 10,000 listings, so a big market gets split by city or property type.
- Photos stay on the MLS photo servers, so your disk barely grows. Your database does grow.
See hosting requirements and how many listings you can import.
What features do we lose from our hosted IDX?
Whatever came bundled with the vendor stays with the vendor: buyer listing alerts, lead records and their CRM. Leads are covered in “What happens to my leads when I leave?” above, and alerts in the FAQ at the end.
Are we just trading one vendor for another?
Partly, yes. You still rely on a plugin and on whoever looks after your site. The difference is what happens when you leave: your listing pages stay in WordPress (see “What happens to my listing pages when I leave?” above).
Before you cancel the old IDX, compare a handful of listings in both, including one that just sold. If the sold one is gone from your new site and the prices match, your updates and cleanup are working.
Moving from IDX Broker or Showcase IDX without losing your Google rankings
You keep most of your rankings by sending every old page that gets Google visits to its matching new page with a 301 redirect. A 301 tells Google the page moved for good. Most of your rankings usually sit on your area pages, blog and home page, not on single listings. Expect a short dip while Google catches up.
Where do my IDX Broker or Showcase IDX listing pages live right now?
It depends on your vendor and your setup. Open any listing on your site and look at the address bar. That address tells you what you can redirect.
| What the address bar shows | What it means | Can you redirect it? |
|---|---|---|
| yourname.idxbroker.com/… | The page sits on IDX Broker’s own domain | No. You don’t control that address. Ask sites that link to it to update their links. |
| search.yoursite.com/… | Your own subdomain, pointed at IDX Broker | Yes, if you keep that subdomain in your DNS (your domain’s address book) and point it at a server that sends visitors on with redirect rules. |
| yoursite.com/your-search-page/… | Showcase IDX builds these pages on your own domain with shortcodes | Yes. It’s your domain, so you set redirects in WordPress or on your host. |
IDX Broker’s own SEO help says that until you set up a custom subdomain, indexed IDX pages send SEO credit to idxbroker.com. See our MLSImport vs IDX Broker comparison for the details.
What should I save before I cancel IDX Broker or Showcase IDX?
Save a list of every page that gets Google visits, plus your leads, before you give notice. Once the vendor turns you off, a lot of this is gone.
- Export Pages and Queries from Google Search Console for the last 12 to 16 months.
- Crawl the live site with a crawler tool and save every listing and search address.
- Save the vendor’s listing sitemap if it has one.
- Pull a list of other sites that link to your saved searches and featured listing pages.
- Export leads, notes, tags and opt-in records as a CSV file (see “What happens to my leads when I leave?” above).
Where should each old IDX page redirect to?
Send each old page to the closest new page, never everything to your home page. Use this map:
| Old page | Send it to |
|---|---|
| Area, city or saved search page | The matching new area page you wrote on WordPress |
| Active listing page | The same home’s new page, like yoursite.com/property/123-main-street |
| Sold or expired listing | The area page for that home |
| Search results address with ?filters | Your main search page or the area page |
MLS Import does not create these redirects for you. You add them with a redirect plugin or at your host. If you have thousands of listing pages, ask your web person whether one pattern rule can match the old and new addresses. That works when both addresses carry the same piece, such as the MLS number. Test a few by hand before you trust it.
How do I switch without my listings going blank?
Run both at once. Start MLS Import while IDX Broker or Showcase IDX is still live, then switch over in one go.
- Check that the domain is registered in your name, and read your contract for notice periods and auto-renew.
- Ask your MLS for API access, and ask what the new site needs for approval.
- Install MLS Import and import into a fresh set of listings. Keep the old vendor running.
- Compare the listings on both sites.
- Export your pages and photos, and check which ones you have permission to use. Rebuild your area pages and keep their old addresses where you can.
- Test your forms and lead delivery.
- Put your redirects live, update menus and links, then turn on your SEO plugin’s sitemap for the property pages.
- Cancel the old vendor only after the new pages show up in Search Console.
What happens to sold listings after the move?
They get removed, and their address shows a “page not found” (404) error unless you redirect it. MLS Import checks your MLS every hour, and a daily cleanup deletes listings that left the MLS. Decide now whether those addresses get a 404 or a redirect to the area page. Read SEO for imported listings.
Will imported listings bring my rankings back on their own?
No. Every agent on your MLS shows the same listing text, and so do Zillow and Realtor.com. Importing puts the listings on your own domain, as real pages Google can read. Your own area pages are what get ranked. As one agent put it: “IDX isn’t there for traffic but I think it’s essential to appear like a real estate website.” See how import vs live IDX works.
If IDX Broker ran on search.yoursite.com, don’t let that subdomain go dead on cancel day. Keep it in your DNS and point it at your redirects for at least a year, so links people already shared still land on your new pages.
Will we lose our Google rankings if we switch?
Not always, but a short dip is normal. Your redirect plan decides most of it. Follow “Moving from IDX Broker or Showcase IDX without losing your Google rankings” above. After launch, check the pages that got Google visits and look for broken links.
How long will it take to leave our current platform?
The move has no fixed length. Your page count, lead export and MLS approval set the pace. Get dates for each task before you give notice. Installing the plugin is one step. It does not mean your pages, leads and forms are ready.
One agent put it plainly: “When I left after 4 years, I had nothing and had to start over from scratch.” Before you give notice, ask your vendor in writing what you get to take with you: your domain, site copy, listing pages, photos and leads. Get the answer by email.
Before you start
- Take a full backup of the site, files and database.
- Write down what you currently have: which MLS, which provider platform, how many listings are published, and which URLs matter for SEO.
- Get your RESO Web API credentials from your MLS or data provider. This is usually the slowest step, so start it first.
- Do the whole thing on a staging copy if you have one. If you do not, do it during your quietest hours.
You do not have to cancel anything on day one. MLSimport can import into a fresh set of listings while your old system is still running, so you can compare the two before you switch.
Coming from a RETS feed
RETS is the older transport, and boards are retiring it. RESO Web API is the replacement: JSON over HTTPS, OAuth 2.0, and a shared data dictionary instead of per-board field soup.
- Ask your MLS for Web API credentials. Most boards issue them alongside, or instead of, RETS keys.
- Install MLSimport and run the setup wizard. Pick your market from the type-ahead list so the metadata loads.
- Live-test the credentials in the wizard before saving.
- Recreate your old feed rules as an import task. RETS queries usually translate cleanly into the location, price, type, status and agent filters.
- Run a capped test import, 25 listings or so, and compare them field by field against the old ones.
Background reading: why the RETS feed is obsolete, what IDX, MLS, RETS and RESO API actually are, and RESO Web API connection details explained.
Coming from another IDX plugin
- Inventory what the old plugin created. Most write listings as a custom post type with their own meta keys, which MLSimport will not read.
- Set up MLSimport alongside it and import into its own listings. Do not delete anything yet.
- Compare counts and spot-check twenty listings for price, status, photos and description.
- Map your URLs. If the old plugin used a different permalink base, plan redirects before you switch.
- Switch your templates and menus over, confirm the site looks right, and only then deactivate the old plugin.
- Clean up the old post type and its meta once you are sure. Bulk property cleanup by taxonomy term is in the admin tools.
Coming from a hosted IDX iframe or widget
This is the biggest change, and the one worth doing. An iframe puts listings on someone else’s domain, which means the pages are not really yours and search engines treat them accordingly. MLSimport writes listings into WordPress as ordinary posts on your domain, with clean permalinks and JSON-LD schema.
There is nothing to migrate technically, because there was never anything on your site. Set up your import task, build your listing pages, then remove the iframe and redirect any old links to the new pages.
Field mapping is the part worth slowing down for
Everything else is mechanical. Field mapping is where a migration goes quietly wrong, because a missing field does not throw an error, it just renders blank.
- Start from the fields your theme actually displays, not from all 400.
- Rename fields to the labels your visitors expect, not the RESO names.
- Decide which fields are private before you go live, not after.
- Route anything you want to filter or browse by to a taxonomy, not a custom field.
Cutover
- Run a full import and let one hourly sync complete.
- Check the activity log. It records every add, update and delete with the task that caused it.
- Point your templates, menus and internal links at the new listings.
- Put your redirects live.
- Deactivate the old system. Leave it installed for a week in case you need to look at it.
Rolling back
If you need to reverse course, your imported listings are ordinary WordPress posts. Cancelling MLSimport stops the sync, it does not delete your content, and nothing is held hostage. Reactivate the old plugin, restore your templates, and you are back.
Frequently asked questions about leaving your real estate platform
Is it risky to move our brokerage off hosted IDX?
Yes, a little, and most of the risk is work moving onto your side. The full list is in What are the risks of moving from hosted IDX to imported listings?
Will my buyers’ listing alerts keep working?
No. Alerts set up on the old platform stop when you leave. On your new site, buyers have to save their search again. In MLS Import’s standalone mode, a buyer saves a search with a name and an email. The search starts working once they click the confirmation email. See Saved searches belong on your own real estate website.
How much does it cost to move to MLS Import?
MLS Import is $49 a month or $504 a year for one MLS feed on one site, with a 30-day free trial and no setup fee. Your MLS board’s own data fee, your hosting and any paid help with the rest of the move are separate. Help with setting up your import is included in the plan. Check the current plan price and the requirements before you buy.
Stuck on a step? Open a ticket from your dashboard or talk to a human. Full assistance with setting up your import is included in the plan.
