Is there a free/pay web service that I can query to get MLS data? [closed]

Answer 1

The best free source at the moment is Oodle.com's API - http://developer.oodle.com/oodle-api. It will give you both for sale and for rent homes.

You can see what their listings look like here: http://realestate.oodle.com/

The MLS' don't typically give their data out. The big rental sites (rent.com, apartments.com, etc.) don't have an API, but do give out data feeds if you contact them and work out a business relationship with them.

Answer 2

Multiple Listing Service (MLS) - a system in the USA and Canada for real estate

For mls.ca (Canadian system), here's an interesting perspective (posted 2008-08-21) on it's availability to the public:

Canadian Realtor Data Cartel excerpt:

Realtors as consultants would also mean they could relax their data cartel, also known as the Multiple Listings Service. This database of sale listings has two faces. Firstly, a private view for realtors only, which shows real-time listings with full details about the homes. The MLS also provides a public view of the data but listings there are time-delayed (often by days) and don't provide all useful details such as direction house is facing, wether the basement is developed, etc in a searchable format. Only recently, due to repeated better offerings that were sued out of existence by the cartel, has the MLS even added interactive maps. They still time-delay public listings and hide many useful details.

Answer 3

If you're an NAR member, you can utilize their Internet Data Exchange (IDX) system, but it isn't available to non-members.