Since 2011, Trulia has made strides to increase the accuracy of MLS listing data on the web. It was at that time that Trulia launched Trulia Direct Reference, a system that allows MLSs, brokers and agents to identify discrepancies between real estate listings from MLSs and listings on third-party syndication sites.
Stuart St James and Entry Only New England have opted-in for Trulia Direct Reference in conjunction with the official MLS system of Massachusetts called MLS Property Information Network (NLS PIN). MLS PIN provides Trulia with a reference file of opted-in listings that shows the status, price and other details. Upon receiving such information from MLS PIN, Trulia will then try to match this data against the listings data syndicated from various sources, including real estate agents, brokers, franchisors and other third party syndicators. They will also compare elements, such as price, agent, brokerage and current status. If there are discrepancies as compared to the MLS PIN data, they will notify the agent and/or MLS PIN directly of the incorrect data sources to help clean up the information that is out there. They will also present the correct data from MLS PIN on Trulia.com.
Entry Only New England is highly supportive of both transparent and accurate MLS listing data for Boston and all of Massachusetts, and we include all our listings in the data provided to Trulia Direct Reference. For the month of January 2014, Trulia matched 31,403 listings, representing 13,233 properties (they often receive multiple versions of a single property through different sources). Of the listings matched, 997 (3%) contained status errors, and 506 (2%) had price errors. Trulia Direct Reference will go a long way in ensuring the accuracy of MLS listings, be those flat fee MLS entry only listings or otherwise.