Vancouver Sun - READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Realtors compete with each other for your business, but at the same time cooperate to help you buy or sell property. That unique concept of cooperating while competing lead to creation of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in 1950 by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

The MLS is fundamentally a cooperative marketing system that helps the public buy and sell real estate. It's a system for sharing information between realtors on homes for sale.

Through the MLS system, the realtor who represents a seller is inviting all other realtors to offer that home for sale to their buyers. Sellers therefore have all the realtors in their community seeking buyers for their homes.

"For buyers, it's a one-stop shopping experience," says Jake Moldowan, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

"By having realtors agree to share their inventory with one another, a more efficient marketplace is created," Moldowan says. "That benefits buyers and sellers."

It's also a system that ensures reliable information about properties for sale and professional accountability....

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