MLS Listing for the greater Saint John Region

A Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) (also Multiple Listing System® or Multiple Listings Service®) is a group of private databases which allows real estate brokers representing sellers under a listing contract to widely share information about properties with real estate brokers who may represent potential buyers or wish to cooperate with a seller's broker in finding a buyer for the property. There is no single authoritative "MLS®", and no universal data format. The many local and private databases--some of which are controlled by single associations of realtors or groupings of associations (which represent all brokers within a given community or geographical area) or by real estate brokers--are collectively referred to as the MLS® because of their reciprocal access agreements.

Seen most widely in the US and Canada but spreading to other countries in a variety of forms, the MLS® combines the listings of all available properties that are represented by brokers who are both members of that MLS® system and of NAR or CREA, (the National Association of Realtors in the US or the Canadian Real Estate Association).

The purpose of the MLS® is to enable the efficient distribution of information so that, when a real estate agent is introduced to a potential home buyer, s/he may search the MLS® system and retrieve information about all homes for sale in a given area or price range, whether under a listing contract by that agent's brokerage or by all participating brokers.

In North America, the MLS® systems are governed by private entities, and the rules are set by those entities with no state or federal oversight, beyond any individual state rules regarding real estate. MLS® systems set their own rules for membership, access, and sharing of information, but are subject to nationwide rules laid down by NAR or CREA. An MLS® may be owned and operated by a real estate company, a county or regional real estate Board of Realtors or Association of Realtors, or by a trade association. Membership in the MLS® is generally considered to be essential to the practice of real estate brokerage.