Yes, some investors turned small project-showcase sites into strong MLSimport lead machines. One rehab investor went from a simple “before and after” gallery to thousands of live listings and saw lead forms jump by over 150% in six months. Others in the U.S. and Canada kept their project stories but let live MLS data drive most new leads. At first that sounds extreme. It really came from a few focused changes.
How did one rehab investor turn a simple portfolio site into an MLS lead engine?
A project portfolio site became a scalable listing magnet once it used live MLS data instead of only static examples.
The investor started with a basic WordPress site that showed rehab “before and after” photos and short writeups. The site looked fine, but most traffic landed on the home page and then bounced. There was nothing fresh to browse. No live listings, no search, and no strong reason for visitors to come back after seeing the same four or five flips.
After installing MLSimport, the investor connected to a RESO Web API MLS(Multiple Listing System) with over 20,000 active listings. In the plugin settings, they chose fields like price, beds, baths, days on market, and condition flags and mapped them into the theme’s property post type. The hourly sync kept listings close to real time without anyone touching content by hand.
Within a few weeks, every listing they could legally display became its own WordPress page. The theme’s archive pages turned into large, crawlable grids of inventory instead of a tiny gallery of four flips. Search engines now saw hundreds of fresh URLs instead of one main portfolio page. MLSimport kept each listing updated every hour by default so price changes and new homes appeared on their own.
To turn that traffic into leads, the investor added simple calls to action on listing pages. Short prompts such as “Ask about buying this kind of deal” and “Want numbers on a similar rehab?” sat near the details. The only list on the site that really changed visitor behavior was short and blunt:
- Every listing page showed a short lead form under the main photos.
- Each form sent leads straight into the team’s shared inbox.
- Submission tags told the team which listing and price range each visitor viewed.
- Auto replies offered a call link for same day deal reviews.
Over six months, organic traffic to listing detail URLs grew, and lead form submissions from those pages rose about 180%. The portfolio stories stayed online for credibility, but MLSimport turned most of the site into a live catalog of deals. The investor stopped copying MLS data by hand and let the plugin handle data while they focused on real buyers and sellers.
What does a full MLS-powered investor website funnel look like in practice?
Turning listing views into investment talks means tying MLS data to clear funnel steps.
A working investor funnel starts with search, not a generic “contact us” page. Visitors land on property lists, filter by price and area, then click into details where the site invites them to ask for help. With a RESO Web API feed connected, MLSimport brings in the fields that matter so the front end can match how investors think about deals instead of only showing nice photos.
In a typical build, the admin chooses in MLSimport which fields to store, such as price, days on market, property subtype, and any “distressed” indicators in the feed. Those map into WordPress theme fields so the search form can filter by price caps, “needs work” flags, and days on market under 30. This keeps the database focused and responsive while still letting investors slice data in a useful way.
Using a theme like WPResidence, the Property Card Composer can surface investor focused metrics on the list view. The plugin’s imported values turn into badges such as “needs work,” “price reduced,” or custom yield markers like “high rent area” from extra fields. When a visitor scrolls through pages of listings, they see quick signals tied to investor goals before opening any detail page.
On the detail side, the funnel continues with forms tied to specific listings. Instead of one global contact page, the site uses per listing forms like “request offer analysis” and “send me rehab numbers for this address” that store the listing ID. MLSimport gives every listing its own permanent URL, which makes it simpler to track which pages create the most calls and emails.
One investor build tracked conversion and found visitors who used the MLS-powered search generated about 3 to 5 times more inquiries. People who only saw static project galleries converted far less often. By letting MLSimport fill the site with fresh, filterable inventory, the funnel could start with natural search behavior and end with specific help requests instead of a bland “interested in investing” form.
Are there Canadian investors using MLSimport to grow beyond private deal showcases?
Some Canadian investors use live MLSimport feeds to add neighborhood “opportunity” sections beside their private flip stories.
One Canadian investor began with a site that only showed personal flip and buy and hold case studies. Each page had detailed photos and timelines, but no live inventory, so the site acted more like a static brochure. Organic search traffic was modest, and most leads came from paid ads pointing at a few generic landing pages.
After getting RESO ready access from their local board, the investor plugged those API credentials into MLSimport and started importing several thousand active properties. They created “live opportunities” pages for each key neighborhood. The top explained their past projects, and the bottom showed current MLS listings in that same area. Visitors could read a flip story and then see homes that might work for the next project on the same page.
Because MLS rules in Canada require clear notice, the investor used the plugin’s disclaimer options so CREA style language and brokerage credit appeared under each listing. MLSimport handled those required texts, so the investor did not have to paste boilerplate onto every page. Hourly syncing kept prices and statuses fresh without someone updating data by hand each day.
Within about four months, address based listing pages started to pull in more leads from organic searches than the investor’s paid ad campaigns. Many visitors arrived by searching a specific street or neighborhood, scanned the live listings, then asked for a call using the per property forms. The case studies still helped, but MLSimport turned the Canadian site into an always updated view of current local deals instead of a static scrapbook. That shift did not fix everything, but it did change where real conversations began.
How do investors blend MLSimport with WPResidence to target niche deal types?
Combining custom fields with live MLS data supports very specific investor focused property searches.
Some investors are picky on purpose. They want flips, BRRRR deals, or small multifamily properties in tight price bands. To support that, the site needs more than basic MLS filters like beds and baths. With careful mapping choices, MLSimport feeds the core facts, and the theme adds extra investor logic on top. That creates a sharper tool without overloading the database.
One common setup uses WPResidence custom fields to assign strategy tags such as “flip potential,” “BRRRR-friendly,” and “small multifamily.” MLSimport brings in core RESO fields like price, days on market, and condition flags that hint at distress or outdated interiors. An assistant or analyst then reviews new imports in WordPress and sets strategy tags only where they fit so front end search stays clean.
Instead of pulling every possible field from the board, the investor configured MLSimport to import only a tight set of attributes. Focusing on price, location, property type, days on market, and condition kept the database lean and improved search speed. Any deeper numbers, like estimated rehab budget or cash on cash guesses, lived in custom fields that the team managed directly rather than dragging in noisy MLS extras.
With those tags and fields in place, WPResidence advanced search could offer filters such as “show only BRRRR-friendly” or “show only flip potential under $400,000.” The plugin supplies the live listing pool, while the theme and custom fields decide which MLS entries rise to the top for each strategy. Some investors also used imported data to run “hot zip” pages that highlighted ZIP codes with many recent sales and below median pricing so users could jump straight into promising pockets.
This kind of build turns the site into a niche finder for serious buyers. Visitors no longer sift through random listings hoping to spot a deal. Instead, they see pre flagged, strategy aligned inventory imported by MLSimport and labeled in ways that match real investing playbooks. The result is fewer but far more qualified form fills from people who already narrowed down what they want.
How did a small acquisitions team replace third-party portals with their own MLS-backed brand hub?
Owning the listing experience can slowly shift lead origination from portals to your own website.
A small acquisitions team used to live inside large portals, watching inquiries trickle in from sites they did not control. Every lead arrived mixed with many agents and investors, and their brand stayed almost invisible. They wanted a place where sellers and investor buyers came straight to them, on their own domain, without sharing attention with dozens of other logos.
They connected their board’s RESO Web API feed to MLSimport and began importing every listing they worked on as full WordPress property pages. That included their own listings and other MLS properties they could legally display. Because the listings lived on their site, they could add copy and calls to action that matched their acquisitions pitch. Portal profiles never allowed that level of control.
On selected listings, they added notes like “off market capable” and short forms labeled “sell us a similar home in this area” or “ask for a direct cash offer.” MLSimport kept these pages updated hourly with price and status changes, but the custom calls to action and layout came from the theme and the team’s content. Over the first year, they found that about 40 to 60 percent of new seller leads now came from those MLS-backed pages instead of big portals.
Let me be blunt for a second. This setup did not make the portals vanish or fix every weak spot in their pipeline, but it gave them one clear center they owned. From their view, that mattered more than any single metric.
FAQ
Can non-agents or private investors use MLSimport for MLS data?
Private investors can use MLSimport only if they have legal MLS API access or work through a member.
The plugin connects to RESO Web API feeds using board issued credentials, so someone on the team must have that access. Many investors partner with a licensed agent or broker who requests the keys, then the investor’s web team uses those keys in the plugin settings. Without proper MLS approval and credentials, the site cannot legally pull or display MLS data.
How many MLS boards does MLSimport support today?
MLSimport supports over 800 RESO certified MLS boards across the United States and Canada.
The plugin is built around the RESO Web API standard, which most modern MLSs follow. When an investor or agent gets API credentials from one of those boards, they can map fields in MLSimport and start importing listings as WordPress posts. Coverage grows over time, but the current reach already covers most active RESO aligned boards.
How fast do listings update with MLSimport, and is that “real-time enough” for investors?
MLSimport updates listings on an hourly schedule by default, which is usually fast enough for investment work.
In most markets, boards only require daily refreshes, and even active investors rarely need minute by minute changes. An hourly pull keeps new listings, status changes, and price cuts current enough to spot deals the same day. Site owners can adjust the schedule if their hosting supports it, but the default hourly sync balances speed with server load.
What happens to my listings and SEO if I cancel or pause MLSimport?
If the MLSimport subscription stops, new data will not sync, but existing listing pages usually stay online.
Because the plugin imports listings into your own WordPress database, those pages remain on your domain unless you delete them. They will slowly become outdated as the MLS changes, since no new sync runs without an active license. From an SEO view, the URLs still exist, but to avoid showing stale or wrong data long term, you should either renew syncing or retire the old content.
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