Need to schedule a virtual open house or broker tour in this new era ushered in by Covid-19?
MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN), the MLS system with which we exclusively partner, recently released the capability to create, schedule, and edit virtual open houses and virtual broker tours in the MLS system on MLS listings.
When a new event (open house or broker tour) is created in the MLS system, “Event Type” can be selected, “In-Person” or “Virtual” (the default is “In-Person”).
An Event URL for the online event must be provided. MLS PIN has not indicated any limitations on Event URLs – whereas MLS PIN is quite strict when entering URLs into the MLS, for example, MLS PIN does not allow the use of YouTube URLs for virtual tours, those same limitations don’t seem to be in force with the Event URL field for virtual open houses or broker tours.
The “virtual event” information will be available to all data access customers and via searches in the MLS itself (the MLS itself is accessible to licensed real estate agents and brokers only) as well as third-party sites like Zillow and Realtor.com (though there is no guarantee that any particular site will display an event link).
If your event will be both “Virtual” and “In-Person,” you must create two separate events.
Going forward, both in-person and virtual open houses and broker tours may be the norm.
The ability to add virtual open houses and broker tours to your MLS listing is now available during both the signup process as well as making updates to your listing via our Listing Update Request Form.