Why Isn't Your Home in the MLS?

I answered a consumer question from the real estate website Trulia today that has me wondering.

The consumer asked for more details about a property here in Edwardsville, Illinois.

I searched our MLS (multiple listing service) and, finding nothing, searched the public records in Madison County for that address.

That's where I found the property and noted that it had been sold in the last couple of years. I replied that the home was not currently listed for sale in our MLS and told the consumer about the prior sales history.

Here's where the story gets interesting...

I received a reply from the consumer asking me where I got that information because the property was HIS and it WAS currently for sale. He had been asking questions on Trulia trying to check out web traffic and activity on it.

That's when I put my detective hat on and dug a little deeper...

Turns out he does have his ILLINOIS property listed. But it's listed with a broker in CALIFORNIA! (Last time I checked, California was 2000 miles and two time zones away from Edwardsville, Illinois.)

The California broker has the property listed on Trulia, but not via the local MLS that all brokers in Southwestern Illinois are using -- the Southwestern Illinois Regional MLS. So it looks to all of us -- and subsequently to all of our buyers -- as if his property is not listed at all.

I sent one last message to him to provide the final answer to his question, suggesting that it would be more appropriate to ask his own agent about why his home is not selling and is not in the local MLS.

I don't know if I will hear back from this seller in the future. Perhaps when his contract with the California broker ends and he wants Illinois representation to sell his Illinois home, he'll get in touch. I hope so. I'd love to help.

The moral to this mystery? If you want to sell your house in Edwardsville, Illinois, please use a broker who will list your property in the MLS that all of the real estate professionals in the region use to find properties for their buyers.