Yes, you can control which listings MLSimport brings in so your site only holds the properties you care about. MLSimport lets you filter by status, city, postal code, property type, price, and even agent or office IDs before anything enters WordPress. That way you avoid pulling in tens of thousands of random listings and keep the site focused, niche, and fast to search and browse.
How precisely can I filter which MLS listings MLSimport brings into WordPress?
You can define import rules so only listings that match your city, type, and price rules get added.
In MLSimport, every feed you set up starts with rule choices that decide what is allowed in. The plugin reads your RESO or DDF feed and lets you narrow that stream by city, multiple cities, ZIP or postal code, and regions already defined in the MLS(Multiple Listing System) data. At first this feels complex. It is not. You choose the exact mix, so a feed can be as tight as just three ZIP codes or as wide as a whole metro area.
MLSimport also gives you clear control over property type and subtype, so you can pick only Residential, Condo, Multi-Family, Commercial, or any mix that the feed exposes. Price filters are simple: you set minimum and maximum values, like only $500,000 and up or between $300,000 and $800,000. Those same feeds can be locked to specific Agent IDs or Office IDs, which helps when you want only your office listings in one section and a wider mix in another.
- Filter each feed by single or many cities plus postal or ZIP codes.
- Limit imports to property types and subtypes from the RESO or DDF feed.
- Set minimum and maximum prices to create clear budget segments.
- Target listings by chosen agents or offices using Agent ID and Office ID.
The helpful part is that these filters run before listings become WordPress posts, so your database stays cleaner. MLSimport lets you create several feeds with different rules, so a starter homes feed, a condos only feed, and a $1M+ feed can all live side by side without overlap if you want that much control.
Can MLSimport pull in only active listings or include pending and sold when allowed?
Status filters keep your site focused on the listing stages you actually want visitors to see.
You choose which statuses the import should accept so the site stays in line with your business and board rules. MLSimport reads the status fields from the RESO or DDF feed and lets you keep things to only Active listings, or widen the set to include Pending or Under Contract when your MLS rules allow showing them. That keeps your search results cleaner and more honest for buyers.
The plugin also listens for status changes from the feed on every sync, so off-market listings like Expired or Withdrawn are removed automatically. In boards that permit Closed or Sold data, MLSimport can bring those in for recently sold pages or market stats, again under your chosen filter. You avoid stale data because the MLS stays the single source of truth and the plugin just follows those status updates.
How does selective importing with MLSimport keep my site lean, fast, and hyperlocal?
Limiting imports to your true service area keeps both your content plan and database more efficient.
When you cut your feed to only a few cities, neighborhoods, or postal codes, the whole site feels lighter and more focused. MLSimport lets you scope each feed tightly so you avoid stuffing WordPress with tens of thousands of listings from a huge regional MLS you won’t ever service. Fewer records in the database usually mean quicker queries, faster property search, and easier caching.
This setup also likes multiple focused feeds. One might take only a high-end coastal city, another might cover an affordable suburb, and a third might handle rural land. Because MLSimport can keep images on the remote MLS or CDN (content delivery network) instead of copying everything to your server, even big photo sets don’t crush your disk space. The result should be a site that loads in around 2–3 seconds in many cases, as a realistic target, while still offering solid search depth.
| Import choice | Effect on database | Impact on visitors |
|---|---|---|
| Whole regional MLS | Very large tables and heavier queries | Slower pages and mixed geographic focus |
| Only key cities | Moderate table size | Faster search and clearer area focus |
| Hyperlocal ZIP codes | Small tidy dataset | Very quick pages and tight relevance |
| Multiple niche feeds | Segmented records by niche | Clean sections serving each audience |
| Remote MLS images | Lower storage and backup load | Fast galleries with less server strain |
By treating location and niche as hard import filters, you use the MLS as a large source but only keep what matches your real service map. I was going to say this solves performance forever. It does not. MLSimport just helps keep that trimmed dataset synced on a schedule you pick, so the site stays quick even as listings change daily.
Can I run different MLSimport feeds for niches like luxury or investment properties?
Multiple filtered feeds let you build separate site sections for distinct niches without overlapping inventory.
You can set up several feeds inside MLSimport, each with its own price bands, locations, and property types. One feed might import only listings above $1,000,000 as a rule for a luxury section, while another brings in entry-level properties under $500,000, and a third only pulls multi-family or land. At first that sounds hard to manage. But each feed still writes to the same property post type, so your theme can treat everything as one system.
Fine-grained filters like beds, baths, or other fields from the RESO feed can push these niches even further. For example, you might define an investment feed as two or more units, at least two bathrooms, and a cap on price per unit. MLSimport runs those conditions at import time, which means your luxury pages don’t get flooded by off-target condos, and your investor pages only show profiles that actually fit that role.
After import, how much control do I still have over which listings display?
Even after importing, you can still decide which subsets of properties appear on each part of the site.
Once the feed runs, all imported listings are just regular WordPress property posts, so your theme archives, shortcodes, and widgets can add a second layer of filters. MLSimport handles the data sync, while you use templates or queries to show only certain cities, price bands, or types on each page. A homepage might highlight just one city, while a landing page for investors might show only multi-family results.
If you later tighten a feed rule, the plugin simply stops syncing listings that are out of scope on new or updated imports. Older out-of-scope posts can be removed or hidden with normal WordPress tools or custom queries. This stacked control means you first decide what gets into the database, then decide where each slice of that data should show to visitors, which feels like a better long-term pattern.
FAQ
Does MLSimport cover my MLS or DDF board?
MLSimport supports over 800 MLS and DDF markets that expose a RESO Web API.
The plugin connects to boards across the US and Canada that already support RESO or the CREA DDF API. Coverage grows as more MLS providers move from RETS to RESO, so even smaller boards often become available over time. The safest move is to check the current supported list before planning a new site rollout.
How often can MLSimport sync new and updated listings to my site?
You can run imports as often as hourly or on a calmer schedule that fits your hosting.
Most sites use a 30–60 minute schedule as a rule of thumb to keep price and status current without overloading the server. MLSimport relies on WordPress cron or a real system cron, so you can back off to every few hours on weaker hosting, or go more frequent on stronger plans. The balance is up to you, since not every market needs minute-by-minute changes or that much traffic on the server.
Can I limit how many total listings each feed brings in?
You can cap the maximum number of listings per feed to protect performance.
In the feed settings you can set a hard ceiling, such as 2,000 listings, so imports stop at that limit even if the MLS query could return more. That helps on shared hosting or when you want a smaller, curated catalog. Combined with price and location filters, this keeps the database comfortable to manage and much easier to back up.
Will MLSimport respect my MLS rules about which fields and statuses I can show?
MLSimport follows whatever fields and listing statuses your MLS authorizes for IDX display.
The plugin only works with the data your board exposes through its RESO or DDF endpoint under your credentials. If sold data or certain fields aren’t allowed, they never arrive in the feed, and the import rules can’t force them in. That keeps your WordPress site in line with board policy while still giving you detailed control inside the allowed space.
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