Searching online for Portland homes

Unless you've been living under a rock since the 90s, you probably already know that you can search for Portland real estate online. But what you may not know is that all Portland home search websites are not at all created equal.

When you're searching for Portland real estate online, you want to make sure you're using a locally owned website belonging to a local real estate agent, not a big national site. Why? The results you get are usually going to be more current, and the service you will get is likely to be better.

Local is everything

The big national websites (to remain unnamed...you know who they are!), have two major flaws. They are not complete, and they are not always up to date with current listings. Why is this the case? Well, think about it like this. Every region in the country has what's called an MLS, right? That's where local REALTOR® boards band together to create a shared database of real estate listings.

But the problem is that there is no national MLS, and probably never will be (slap my hands for not being a visionary on this one). There is no national MLS because it each board of REALTORS®, acting in its enlightened self interest, will ever cede its power over its database of homes for sale to a national entity.

Without going into the politics of how each MLS tries to protect its most valuable asset (its database of listings), suffice to say that there is not a movement to release control of the local data on a national scale. This means you'll always be better off searching for Portland homes through the websites of agents located in...you guessed it...Portland.

But aren't there some big national real estate sites?

Yes, there are big national real estate sites with multimillion dollar marketing and search engine optimization budgets, which is why you know of them. But they continue to be plagued by stale listings (old listings that aren't removed in a timely manner), and incomplete data (listings where the listing agent hasn't opted into the service to show their properties).

These two problems make it a much better proposition for home buyers to find a local Portland real estate site to search for their next home, rather than going to the big name sites. Buyers are much less likely to waste their time on stale listings or miss listings that haven't been included in the national site by simply working on the website of a local Portland agent.