All properties have to go in the MLS?

I was at a trade show this week, and besides having much to contemplate with regards to whether to switch brokerages in the future, I learned a bit, too.

In one class, agents were talking about how they send buyer clients automated emails when new properties come on the market that meet their buyers’ defined criteria. I asked how they dealt with unrepresented sellers (archived: 2008). The response was almost adequate, but what was most striking was the apparent difference between the Charlottesville real estate market and the California real estate market. A California agent approached me after the class and said that in California, state law dictated that within 72 of taking a listing, that property had to be put into the MLS. When I suggested that this might be an MLS rule, she was adamant that it was a California state law. Very, very different. Apparently they don’t have limited-service brokerages there. This is where you can search for homes in the Charlottesville area.

Also, Wolf-Net Technologies seems to have a mighty good mapping solution (archived: 2012).