The MLS credentials belong to the MLS member: the agent, the broker, or the brokerage. MLSImport is not a data vendor, cannot apply on your behalf, and cannot hold credentials for you.
Which member applies depends on your MLS. Mixing up the board, the data provider and the plugin is a common reason people apply in the wrong place; see the difference between the MLS, the data provider and the IDX plugin.
Who do I call first: my MLS, my broker, my board or an IDX vendor?
Call your MLS first, then get your broker to sign. With MLSImport there is no vendor to call for the feed.
| Who | What they do | When to contact them |
|---|---|---|
| Your MLS (its data or IDX desk) | Approves a feed for your website and issues the login | First. Ask if there is a member route for your own site |
| Your broker | Signs or approves the request | Before you apply, so the request does not sit in their inbox |
| Your board (your REALTOR association) | Handles membership and dues | Only if it also runs your MLS |
| MLSImport | Pulls the approved feed onto your WordPress site and keeps it updated | Before you buy, to ask which route your MLS uses |
| A hosted IDX vendor | On the vendor route, often holds the feed in its own name | Only if your MLS says you must use an approved vendor |
Not sure whether your board and your MLS are the same? Look at the login screen you use to search homes every day. The name on that screen is your MLS, and that is who you ask about a website feed.
Who applies
Already paying MLS dues? That’s a separate thing from a website feed. Here’s why MLS access alone doesn’t put listings on your site.
- Agent or member. Many boards let a member request their own feed for their own website, sometimes as a courtesy feed included in membership.
- Designated broker or brokerage. Some boards accept feed requests only at brokerage level, and route brokers to a different platform than members.
- A team. A team is not an MLS member, so one member, usually the team lead, holds the feed for the team site. Many boards also name the agent whose site shows the listings. Then one import task per team member puts each agent’s listings under their name.
Ask your MLS which route applies to your role before starting anything. In Greater Vancouver, for example, vendor guides say both the agent and the broker sign before the board reviews the request; see GVR’s approval steps. An agent working through a broker only route waits for an approval that will never arrive.
In more than one MLS? You apply to each board on its own, and all of the approved feeds can run on one site; see connecting two MLS boards to one website. Building a site in Canada? On REALTOR.ca DDF, only a brokerage owner can turn on the brokerage’s settings. See who has to say yes for a Canadian agent’s own website.
Does my broker have to sign off before I put MLS listings on my own website?
Yes, in almost every US MLS, even when you built the site and pay for it. IDX is the MLS program that lets brokers show each other’s listings online, and under NAR’s IDX policy that right belongs to the broker (the MLS “participant”). An agent can run an IDX site only with the broker’s OK, under the broker’s control and name. Your MLS decides whether that takes a signature, an electronic approval or another step.
What your broker usually signs or approves:
- The IDX agreement or a broker approval form with your MLS.
- Your website address, the domain where the homes will show.
- On some boards, one more click inside the MLS or feed system to turn your access on.
- The brokerage name on your site. Many boards want brokerage branding on the site at all times, plus listing broker credit and the MLS disclaimer.
Who pays does not change who approves. You can pay for MLSImport in your own name while your broker signs for the feed, and your broker never needs your MLSImport password. Some boards offer a free framed search that skips the broker step, but it lives on someone else’s server and gives your site little search credit. For what the broker of record signs on individual boards, see broker of record sign-off for IDX.
How to apply for your website feed
You apply to your own MLS, not to RESO and not to a plugin company. RESO sets the Web API standard but does not issue credentials, and the login you use to search the MLS at work is not a website credential.
- Ask your MLS in writing: “Is there a member route for my own website, or must I use an approved IDX vendor? Do I apply as an agent or through the broker? Which platform sends the feed, which login values will I get, what does it cost, and does my broker need to log in and approve it?”
- Find the data feed page. Look on your MLS website for “Data Feeds”, “IDX” or “Data Access”. Some boards send you to a sign-up site run by the company that delivers the feed, such as Trestle or Bridge.
- Apply with your real domain, not a test site. The approval is tied to that address.
- Ask for Web API, not RETS. RETS is the old feed format, and MLSImport does not read it. A framed search widget is not a feed at all.
- Get your broker to sign, and tell them the form is coming.
- Pay any board fee. Some boards include a website feed with dues; others charge. Your board bills this, not the plugin.
- Keep the approval email. It names the feed type, the platform and the approved website.
- Paste the login into the plugin. Depending on the platform, that is a single server token, or a client ID and a client secret; a few platforms use more values. See what RESO Web API access is and connecting your MLS in the wizard.
Approval takes days to a few weeks; see MLS approval processes that take time. The full order, with an email you can copy, is in how to connect your website to your MLS.
Why would my board stall or reject my website feed?
Boards rarely reject a plugin. They hold up the application, because something on it is missing or on the wrong route.
- Your broker hasn’t signed. The most common reason a request sits on pending is a broker who has not logged in and done their part. Check that before contacting the MLS again.
- You picked the vendor route. Boards keep separate member and vendor forms, and a member on the vendor form waits in the wrong line.
- The domain or the intended use is missing. Say the feed is for showing listings on your own website, at your real domain.
- You signed the agreement but never requested the feed on the platform itself.
- Your board only allows listed vendors. See the next section.
Is an IDX plugin approved by my MLS, or do I check the approved vendor list?
Usually your MLS doesn’t approve a plugin at all. It approves a feed, for a member (you or your broker) and one website. Some boards also keep an approved vendor list. That list matters when a vendor holds the feed for you. With MLS Import, the feed is in your name, so you hold it.
Think of it as two doors into the same data:
| Member route | Vendor route | |
|---|---|---|
| Who applies | You or your broker | The vendor, often with your broker’s signature |
| Whose name is on the feed | Yours or your brokerage’s | Often the vendor’s |
| Does the approved vendor list matter? | Usually not, the credentials are yours | Yes, the vendor must be listed or must apply |
| Fees | Set by your board for members; some charge little or nothing | Vendor fees, often a setup fee for a new vendor plus a fee per client |
MLS Import works on the member route. It can’t register as your vendor, sign for you, or apply for you. Your board gives you the API token, and you paste it into the plugin. Ask your board what it charges a member for a feed to their own website and what it charges a new IDX vendor; the gap is often your real saving. See direct MLS feed or IDX vendor.
Boards really do keep vendor lists. NTREIS, for example, links a list of authorized IDX vendors and says a vendor not on it has to apply first. That rule is about vendors who receive data. A few boards go further and require every IDX site to use a listed provider. On a board like that, ask in writing whether a brokerage can be its own provider for its own website, and get the answer before you pay for any plugin.
How to check a vendor or a board before you buy
- Find your MLS’s vendor page: search its site for “approved vendors”, “IDX vendors” or “data access”. Look for the vendor’s exact company name, which can differ from its brand.
- Ask the vendor: “Are you already approved with my MLS, or do you still have to apply?” Applying can add weeks.
When a plugin says it’s “MLS approved”, ask: approved by which MLS? Approval happens one board at a time. Your board’s written answer is the only one that counts for your site.
Is MLS Import on my MLS’s approved vendor list?
It doesn’t need to be on the member route. MLS Import doesn’t sign up with boards as a data vendor. Your board approves you, you hold the credentials, and the plugin uses them.
Does “MLS approved” on a vendor’s site mean my MLS approved it?
No. It means some boards approved that vendor. Yours may not be one of them. Check your own board’s IDX or data access page, or call its support desk.
What MLSImport is and is not
Vendors manage, process, or redistribute MLS data. MLSImport does not do any of that. It connects your WordPress site to the feed your MLS has already approved for you.
That distinction matters on application forms. We cannot call your MLS, fill in or sign its forms, register as your vendor, sign agreements for you, apply on your behalf, access your MLS account to find credentials, or ask the MLS to approve anything for you. Every one of those is the member’s to do. The same goes for a feed that breaks later: see who talks to your MLS when the connection fails, and what we check for you.
What we can do is confirm your credentials connect before you pay, tell you which server your MLS runs and which values to request, and set the plugin up once access is approved, on an onboarding call if you want one.
Why we work this way: the feed stays tied to your brokerage. If you ever leave us, your MLS approval doesn’t leave with the vendor. The trade-off is plain. Your broker spends a little time on the forms.
Building a site for a client
Your client gets the feed, and you plug it in. The MLS licenses its data to its member, never to a web developer, and there is no page where a developer can buy an MLS key alone.
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| Your client (the agent or broker) | Applies to their MLS for a website feed in their own name, for the real domain, and pays any MLS fees |
| Your client’s broker | Signs or approves the request. Many boards won’t move without it |
| You (the developer) | Build the site, enter the login values, follow the board’s display rules. Usually you sign nothing |
| The MLS | Approves the feed for that one website and sends the login values |
- The client shares the credentials with you to enter into the plugin, or enters them themselves.
- Applying as a third party vendor is a different route with its own fees on most boards. If your client qualifies as a member, the member route is usually cheaper and faster.
- Some boards want the builder to sign too. Some use a three-party agreement between the broker, the builder and the MLS for custom sites. If the form names a developer or vendor, that is you; send us a screenshot before you submit.
What is the broker signing?
The MLS’s IDX or data feed agreement for the client’s named website, not a contract with MLSImport. By signing, the broker takes responsibility for how the site shows listings. Most agreements cover the same ground: the feed goes to one named website; the broker stays in control and can change or take down what the site shows; the board’s display rules (brokerage name, listing office credit, the disclaimer, a last-updated date); limits on the data (no agent-only remarks or showing notes, no listings the seller kept off the internet, no copying to other sites); and how it ends, for example when the agent leaves the brokerage. Ask for the board’s form before the broker signs.
What to collect from your client
- The exact MLS name (each MLS if they belong to more than one), and whether they are an agent or the broker.
- The approval email itself, forwarded, not a summary; its feed type, platform and domain decide whether a connection will work.
- The feed login values the MLS issued. Have them ask for “RESO Web API credentials for my website” by name.
- Their agent MLS ID, office MLS ID and one MLS number to test, so you can pull only their listings or their office’s.
- The board’s display rules from the data agreement. Credits, disclaimers and allowed statuses are cheap in a mockup and costly to retrofit.
Have your client apply before you start the design and before you start the 30-day trial. The site can be built in a week; the approval is the part you cannot rush, and a client who sees an empty listings page blames the developer. See the free trial and its limits.
Planning the rest of the job
- The account and the handover. The MLS credentials are always your client’s; whose name goes on the MLSImport account, and how to hand it over later, is in who can use MLSImport. For who keeps the pages and leads if you leave, see cancelling MLSImport.
- A client changing brokerage or leaving a hosted IDX. The feed needs a new approval under the new broker. See the migration guide.
- Costs. MLS data fees, vendor fees and hosting are listed in what an IDX setup actually costs.
- The build. The full order of work is in building an MLS site for a realtor client; plugin versus your own code is on MLSimport for developers; new to IDX itself, see what IDX is. In Toronto, see TRREB’s PropTx feed.
- After launch. The call you will get most is why a sold home still shows active; see why sold homes still show as for sale.
- Many clients. Agency workflows are in MLS websites for teams, agencies and multisite, or hire our team to set up the feed and the first import.
Frequently asked questions
Why can’t I just copy listings off the MLS website onto my site?
Because MLS listings are licensed to MLS members under the board’s rules, not public data. A copy breaks those rules and can get the member fined or cut off, goes stale as soon as a home sells, and can expose details the approved feed filters out. The approved feed is the only allowed route, even if you only want your own listings: an import task then filters it down; see importing one agent’s or one office’s listings.
The MLS form asks who our IDX vendor is. What do we put?
Follow your MLS’s form. Many boards have a member or broker route for your own website with no third party vendor. On that route, your brokerage is the one applying. If the form makes you name a vendor or software, send us a screenshot through a support ticket before you submit. We will tell you what your board usually expects.
Can you email my broker to approve my access?
No. We do not send approval requests to brokers and cannot apply on your behalf. The request has to come from you or your broker directly to the MLS or the API platform.
Do I need a real estate licence to use MLSImport?
You need MLS approved access, which in most markets means being a member or working under one. A developer without a licence can build the site, but the feed is approved to the member whose listings are being displayed.
I’m a managing broker, not the designated broker. Can I hold the MLS credentials myself?
Yes, if your MLS accepts the request from you, but on most boards the designated broker still has to sign or authorize it. Ask your MLS whether the request goes in under your name or the principal’s.
My application has been pending for weeks. Can you check it?
We cannot see your application; only your MLS can tell you its status, and the stall reasons above are what to check first. If your trial is running out while you wait, tell us and we will extend it or help you pause.
Can one set of credentials cover several websites?
No. Credentials are issued to a member for an approved domain, and each WordPress site saves its own MLS login. Putting one client’s login on another client’s site shows listings the board never approved for that site, and the fine lands on the member whose login was used. Several agents on one brokerage site are one website, with an import task per agent. Separate websites need separate approvals and separate subscriptions.
Related
- MLS approval processes that take time
- What RESO Web API access is and why you need it
- Who can use MLSImport
- Requirements before you buy
Tell us your MLS name and your role and we will tell you which application route your board uses.
