I know what I want to explain, but I don't know if this will come out right or not, so bear with me!

Our local MLS system uses Paragon 3 with FNIS. Desktop and online. I absolutely hate these programs! Layouts for data are terrible and it just doesn't do what I want. Are there other progams that will pull the MLS data so I can create better data sheets to give to my customers, incorporate better with contact management, etc? I'm not sure what I am wanting but Paragon 3 is not it.

All depends on how your raw data is served. Our board dumps it as an Access style database through an Aurora interface. This then makes it usable by a wide variety of programs.

our MLS provides an ftp address and password for third party access

Do you need a web-based application?

Ask your MLS if they will provide a "data feed". This will give you the data in raw format, usually comma delimited, and you can do anything you want with it (within guidlines of course). Our MLS's I work with use FTP with our own personal logins.