A portal style property search on your own domain, over your own MLS, with listings stored as your own content, is realistic and is what MLSImport is for. A national aggregator combining many MLSs under one search is not, and no configuration gets you there.
This page separates the two, so you can plan a build that finishes rather than one that stalls halfway.
What you can build
- A full search experience over the MLSs you belong to. Filters on city, area, county, ZIP, property type, status, price, and the rest of the fields your MLS publishes.
- Map search with pins. Latitude and longitude arrive with the listing whenever your MLS provides them, which is what map search and clustering run on.
- Listing pages on your own domain. Real URLs, your templates, your internal links, your calls to action, indexed like any other page on your site.
- Curated segments. Separate pages, archives, and searches per city, per neighbourhood, per property type, or per agent, because the listings are ordinary WordPress content underneath.
- Lead capture on your terms. Your forms, your CRM, your follow up, with no vendor sitting between you and the enquiry.
What you cannot build
- A site carrying data your MLS does not publish. Automated valuations, tax history, school ratings, walk scores, and off market data come from sources outside the MLS feed. If you want them, you are buying and integrating them separately.
- A site that ignores MLS display rules. The large portals operate under negotiated agreements. You operate under the standard IDX or Web API terms your MLS gave you, which govern attribution, which statuses stay visible, and what has to be removed and how quickly.
- The portals’ non listing features by default. Agent ratings, consumer accounts, mortgage tools, and market analytics are product work, not import configuration.
A national portal across hundreds of MLSs. One install holds up to seven MLS connections, depending on your plan, and you need approved access from each board. That covers a brokerage in two or three neighboring boards, not a nationwide aggregator.
Why each MLS is its own licence
Every MLS licenses its data separately, issues its own credentials, and enforces its own display rules. A national portal exists because someone negotiated hundreds of those agreements and built infrastructure to reconcile them.
If you serve two markets covered by two MLSs, you hold two data licences with two sets of rules, whatever software sits in front of them.
If your market is covered by one MLS, you need only one licence and the Single MLS plan. Check the coverage area of your MLS before assuming you need more than one. Many MLSs already span several counties, and regional consolidation has made that more common.
Copying listings off Zillow, Realtor.com or another agent’s site doesn’t get around this. Other brokerages’ homes only reach your site through a feed your MLS approves. See how to connect your website to your MLS.
What actually takes the time
People planning a portal style build usually expect the technical import to be the hard part. It is rarely where projects stall.
- Getting API access. Applying, signing the data licence, and waiting for approval can take weeks. Start it before anything else.
- Understanding the display rules. What you may show, how it must be attributed, which statuses can stay up. This shapes your templates, so read it before designing them.
- Deciding what to import. A portal experience over a well chosen market beats a thin one over a large one. Import tasks are capped at 10,000 listings each, so large markets get split by city, type, or status.
- Sizing the hosting. Import and sync are the heavy operations. Budget for a server that finishes them rather than one that is cheap while idle.
Build the site around one city first and launch it. A working search over 2,000 listings teaches you more about what your visitors need than a plan for 200,000 listings that has not shipped.
Your town search needs local advice and a clear way to reach your team. Read how an independent brokerage can compete with Zillow and Redfin in its town for a small starting plan and checks to run before you build more.
Frequently asked questions
Can I combine two MLSs into one search on my site?
Yes, for the boards you belong to. Since version 7.2, one WordPress install carries up to 3 or 7 MLS connections, depending on your plan. Both boards’ listings import into the same site, so one search covers both, and a home listed on both shows once. The licensing is still separate: you need approved access from each board, and each listing follows its own board’s display and attribution rules. See building one site across multiple MLS feeds.
Can I show sold and closed listings the way the big portals do?
Only if your MLS permits it, and many restrict how long closed data may stay visible or whether it may appear at all. The plugin can import and keep those statuses. Whether you may publish them is in your data licence agreement.
Can I add valuations, tax records, or school data to my listings?
Not from MLSImport. It imports the RESO fields your MLS publishes and nothing else. You are free to add other data to your property pages from another source, but sourcing, licensing, and displaying it is your own integration work.
Do I need CoreLogic Trestle specifically to build this?
No. Trestle is one of several platforms MLSs use to deliver a RESO Web API feed, and it is the one used by a number of large MLSs. What matters is that your MLS offers RESO Web API access on a platform MLSImport supports, not which platform that is.
Related
- How MLS websites work: import vs live IDX
- How many listings can you import
- Requirements before you buy
- Who can use MLSImport
Tell us your MLS and the market you want to cover in a support ticket and we will tell you what that build looks like in practice.
