I wanted to know this. Is it law that all properties held by an estate agent must be on the MLS or are just selected ones there?

My understanding is, that when you use a realtor to sell, they are obliged to have it listed on the MLS within 24 hours.

And my understanding is that it takes 72 hours (on occasion) to reach the 'public' MLS. (There two versions apparently... That which we see and that which the Realtors see).

I agree with the previous posters. If the seller used an agent it will be listed on MLS.

There are two different websites to view houses listed on MLS:

http://www.mls.ca
http://www.homesacrosscanada.com

It takes a little more looking though to find houses that are for sale by owner. Just do a search for "for sale by owner" and see what comes up. Here are the first two links that appeared for me.

http://www.forsalebyownercanada.com/
http://www.forsalebyowner.ca/

Haley

Oh - it takes a lot longer than that at times, but it shouldn't!

You are correct about the 'two' versions. I have a nice young man sending me the 'other' type of comparible listings so I can keep abreast of the market in anticipation of selling my other mansion, dahling

When considering who to use to sell our house we consulted with a company called "Assist to Sell". They charge a fixed fee to sell the house and it isn't automatically listed on the MLS site. I don't know if their status is different to normal real estate agents but it does mean that not all houses for sale will appear on the MLS site, at least those marketed by this particular company. In the end we didn't use them.

That's because you aren't using a licensed "Realtor", (only they have access to the MLS). There are several similar companies operating this way.

You don't pay the high commission, but the down side is you don't get the exposure that you do from the MLS.

They informed me that they do have access to the MLS site but attempt to sell it without using that service to start with. The guy we spoke to claimed that 50% of sales result from possible buyers seeing the FOR SALE board outside the house. I don't know if thats true or not but their recommendation is to not list it on the MLS site for four weeks and if it sells then only their fixed fee will apply. Once it goes onto the MLS then the fixed fee and a percentage fee will be charged if another real estate agent becomes involved in showing and selling the house.

I just looked at that site, and they apparently ARE licensed Realtors, offering discounted full service including MLS listing. I have no idea what the quality is like though.

The local office seems to have a very good website with rather nifty 360 degree views of the homes they are listing. But I have to say that I've kept an eye on the site and I haven't seen too many of the houses be sold. I felt that they overvalued our property and I just wasn't completely convinced by them to sign up. We went with someone else and it sold on the first viewing on day one so now I wonder if it was undervalued! But you can't have it both ways.

Found ourselves in that situation, too. It does make you wonder. The best way to get the true value of your home is to bring in several realtors and compare what they each say.

The most accurate way though, is to hire a professional property assessor to value it (such as the banks/mortgage lenders do). Of course this costs, but could save a lot more.

If the property owner gives a licensed realtor a general listing, the realtor is obliged to list the property through the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) system.

If the property owner gives a licensed realtor an exclusive listing, the realtor is NOT obliged to list the property through the MLS system.

Home owners who list their properties with realtors usually sign general listing agreements. It usually is in the home owner's interests to alert as many potential home buyers as possible that the property is for sale. An effective way to do that is for the information to be available through the MLS system.

It's more common for a property owner to sign an exclusive listing agreement with a realtor when the property is expensive and has unique qualities that would appeal to a small niche market. That happens more often in commercial real estate transactions than in residential real estate transactions.

Professional property assessors do exactly the same as a good realtor does when valuing a property, save your money and get a FREE cma from a realtor, there's nothing stopping you from getting as many cma's from as many realtors as you want.
Judy is right, not all properties have to go on MLS but if they do, they have to be listed within 72 hrs or the realtor gets a (small) fine.

www.comfree.ca is another 'realtor free' site.

Realtors are not under obligation to post listings on MLS as they have to pay to do it. The realtoy agent who covers this has chosen not to post on MLS as the number of houses sold through their agency does not meet the MLS costs. Many people here go down the FSBO route.