The True Problem with the Myrtle Beach MLS Search

Blame it on lack of computer knowledge. Blame it on laziness. Blame it on a bad system. But either way you shake it, if you do not enter your property correctly into the CCAR MLS system, then you may be missing out on LOTS of leads! And that is never a good thing in the Myrtle Beach real estate market. And here's why....

User input is put into the hands of the realtor/administrative assistant. What does that mean? Basically, it means users of Paragon are allowed to TYPE in the name for some pretty important fields into the MLS system. Such as City and Building Name. And because there are so many different "versions" of that city or building name being typed it, it is hard for programmers of a website's MLS search to keep track of them and display search results accordingly.

For example, here is a list (not guaranteeing accuracy here) of most of the different variations of the city of Myrtle Beach, as stored (or stored at one time)in the CCAR MLS System:

Myrlte Beach
Myrltle Beach
Myrt
Myrte Beach
Myrtel Beach
Myrtke Beach
Myrtl E Beach
Myrtle
Myrtle Beach
Myrtle .beach
Myrtle Bch
Myrtle Bch.
Myrtle Beac
Myrtle Beacg
Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach Briarcliff
Myrtle Beach,
Myrtle Beach/ Socastee
Myrtle Beah
Myrtle Bearch
Myrtle Bech
Myrtle Drive
Myrtlebeach
Mytle Beach
Mytrle Beach
Mytrtle Beach
Myttle Beach
Myyrtle Beach
Mrtyle Beach
Mrytle Beach
Nyrtle Beach
Myrle Beach
Mb
Mnyrtle Beach
Mrtle Beach
Myrtl;e Beach
Myrtle Bach
Myrtle Baech
Myrtle Beach Resort
Myrtle Beach,sc 29577
Myrtle Beacj
Myrtle Beacxh
Myrtle Brach
M.b.
Myrtle Beach,sc 29577
Myrtle Beach Golf & Yacht Club
Myrtle Beach,s. C. 29588
Myrtle Beachl
Myrttle Beach
Murtle Beach
Meytle Beach

Notice all of the misspellings or even some confusion when entering in a city?

So what does this mean to me? Lets say a user on some MLS search on some random website searches for Myrtle Beach real estate. More specifically, let's say they search for 2 bedroom condos in Myrtle Beach.

When the MLS system does the query, it searchs against records matching the city of "Myrtle Beach". And ONLY Myrtle Beach. It doesn't search for "M.b". It doesn't search for "Myrtle Bach". It searches ONLY for "Myrtle Beach". (Note: There are good IDX systems out there that DO this a type of data filtering to eliminate this. Ask your IDX provider if they do this.)

So, logically concluding, if your city is called "Myrt" in the MLS system, your property will NOT be returned to the user as a result.

The same goes for a building name or anything else you manually have to type in.

So, just keep this in mind, when you are dealing with Myrtle Beach real estate, or well, any other MLS system that accepts manual entry, you want to do 2 things.

1) DO NOT ABBREVIATE. 2) ALWAYS CHECK YOUR SPELLING.

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More tips and tricks to come. Also, check out my how to take proper real estate photos blog entry.