Using The Salt Lake City MLS to Identify and Buy Property

If you are looking to buy real estate in the Salt Lake area then the best place to start is by searching the Salt Lake MLS (officially called the Wasatch Front Regional MLS). This article provides an overview of the MLS's features and what services your Realtor can provide you through the MLS.

Let’s start by providing an explanation for the MLS system and why they are needed. MLS is the abbreviation used for Multiple Listing Service. It is a common database used by real estate brokerages and Realtors to advertise homes for sale. When a property is listed for sale by a brokerage, it is entered onto the MLS so that other Realtors and the public can see it. The ideal behind the MLS is to make it easier for potential buyers to find homes by providing all homes for sale listings for a given area in a single place.

MLS systems cover designated geographic areas, which is some cases can overlap. The Wasatch Front MLS covers all northern Utah areas with the exception of Summit County, which has its own MLS (Park City MLS). If you are looking to purchase property anywhere in the Salt Lake County, Davis County, Tooele County and Utah County then you will find all Realtor listed homes on the Wasatch Front MLS. Note you will not find listings for ‘For Sale By Owner’ property, FSBO properties are not represented by Realtors and so do not appear on the MLS.

There are two different interfaces into the Wasatch Front Regional MLS Database, a simplified public interface that allows users to search for homes based on a number of criteria, and a more advanced Realtor interface.

The public interface allows people to search based on area, price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, type of home, style of home, square feet, year built, and no of garage spaces.

The Realtor interface allows far more functionality, with the ability to compile and view reports, perform a comparative market analysis, see sales prices for homes,  view details for sold / withdrawn listings, and issue hot sheets to name but a few. The hot sheet functionality (also called dream home finder) can be a very useful tool for homebuyers. It enables buyers to receive home listings via their email inbox. The buyer defines their home buying requirements (price, location etc), which are used by the MLS system to automatically email listings on a daily basis. This saves the buyer performing a daily check on the MLS to see if there are any new listings.