A Mid-Atlantic multiple listing service has announced that it has overhauled its consumer-facing website and launched an ad campaign promoting its listing accuracy.
The public home search site for Rockville, Md.-based Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. (MRIS) is now MRIShomes.com, formerly HomesDatabase.com.
The MLS also introduced a new mobile application, MRIS Homes, to complement the redesign. The app works on Apple iOS platforms for iPhone and iPad as well as on devices running on the Android and BlackBerry platforms.
To promote the changes to the website, MRIS is launching an advertising campaign that will tout the site’s listing accuracy with the slogan “Real Time Local Listings” and feature tag lines like “The shortest route from search to sold,” MRIS said in a statement.
Advertising for the site will appear on television, radio, Web, print, and outdoor ads, MRIS added.
The MLS considers listing accuracy MRIShomes.com’s key differentiator from third-party listing sites such as Zillow and Trulia given that recent studies have suggested third-party listing sites often carry outdated or inaccurate listings. For instance, MRIS noted that a study from consulting firm WAV Group Inc. found that third-party sites often fail to remove listings that become inactive.
WAV Group also reported that homes for sale that appear on local listing sites powered by MLS data post as many as nine days before showing up on third-party sites, MRIS said.
“[T]he data on MRIShomes.com is updated in real time, whereas syndicated channels might take days and even weeks longer to update their information,” MRIS said.
