IMO, Trulia ( http://www.trulia.com ) is the closest thing besides Realtor.com to a nationwide MSL out there. I have been keeping an eye on Trulia as I believe that they will be setting the standards for MLS's in the near future.

Chris

Real estate is a local business. In order to properly represent your clients you need local market knowlege which goes beyond a database program.

Here is an article about a national MLS that I got this morning.

Is a National MLS the Way to Go?

I have to disagree Chris.

I was at a panel discussion at the NAR mid-year meetings recently and Sami Inkinen, Trulia's Chief Operating Officer was a participant. He said Trulia was mostly a marketing company more closely akin to Zillow than Realtor.com.

Here's a blog I wrote about the panel.

Very nice blog, there are a lot of good points. I agree with what you are saying in general. My thoughts on the matter are that as knowledge of these nationwide sites becomes more and more prevalent, I believe that buyers will more than likely be heading to the Realtor.com and Trulia.com sites first and foremost rather than a Google search for "Salina KS Real Estate".



My thought is that if I can't for what ever reason get them to my site directly, I sure want to at least make sure that my properties are on the nationwide MLS for the chance to be the buyers agent or at least be able to sell my sellers property to whom ever ends up as that particular buyers agent.

I see the national MLS's as an extension of my advertising campaign to sell properties. I don't see them being nearly as beneficial to to a local customer looking to buy elsewhere since, as mentioned above, real estate sales are still a primarily local business.

I will admit that I am a bit biased as our company was born out of and continues to thrive from nationwide (and worldwide) advertising as our base of sales. We sell approximately 70-80% of our properties to people out of the area, state or in some cases out of the country.

Thanks,
Chris