I need to get expired listings from the MLS (multiple listing service)
from all (or as many as possible) areas of the US on a regular
(weekly) basis. They must be the full listings that the real estate
agents have access to, and that are now expired. I would like to get
them as soon as they expire. Thanks for your help.

I am not sure if you found this question on Google Answers.  This is a
pretty good explanation of how MLS systems work.

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=333952

The short answer is you would have to belong to each service and they
would not send you the information.  You would have to search each
service to find all expired listings during the desired timeframe.

I did a quick search of the service I belong to and found 182 expired
residential listings since 1/1/04.  Population base of 150,000 +/-.

Hope this helps a little..

Hi Nick:

Thanks for the comment. 

I did see that post before. Are you a real estate agent? I am not, so
I cannot access the MLS myself. Maybe I should provide some more
details about what I am trying to do.

I am working with some people who are looking to buy luxury homes at
deep discounts. $1,500,000 and up, 4500 sq ft and up, in nice
neighborhoods. We are looking for motivated sellers, and the houses
cannot be listed. That's why I would like to access the MLS expired
listings in as many areas as possible.

After thinking about it, it seems like one of the only ways to do this
would be to work with real estate agents who would be willing to send
me their expired listings on a regular (perhaps weekly) basis, in
consideration for a finder's fee when a house is found, bought, and
resold.

In your opinion (assuming you are an agent) do you think that I would
be able to get real estate agents (or others with MLS access like
appraisers) to do this for me? The commissions would be fairly large,
and just for the little work of sending the expired listings on. I
suppose that some people may not be interested in the hassle and
expense of mailing the info, not knowing if they'll ever see a return.
Is there any way that people with MLS access can pull the expired
listings and then email them to me? That would at least cut some of
the cost and the hassle.

I also don't know if it is illegal in some states for a real estate
agent to take a finder's fee payment for something like this. It seems
like it would be okay. I guess each individual agent should know that
information according to their state's rules.

Any insight you can provide into this would be appreciated. And if you
are interested in sending your expired listings on to me (provided
your area has homes that meet the criteria) let me know.

Thanks,
Bill

Bill

I will only talk about my limited knowledge of the MLS I belong to as
not to confuse.  To get access to our local system you either have to
be an agent or need access for a legimate purpose such as appraiser,
title company, etc.  It is against regulations to give listings, even
expired ones, two outside parties.  So there is no way to get listings
from this MLS without joining.

Now with that said I use a brokers website that is out of my area.  It
does not give sold or expired information available to the general
public.  The link is here.

http://www.homeorland.com/SearchMLS/searchmls.html

From my personal experience (appraiser in Montana) not many trophy or
upper end homes come to a discount like you mentioned.  Even if they
did require a quick sale it would most likely be exposed to the local
market at a discount required to close a quick sale.

Most sales in this area north of $1 Mil are log homes (or similar;
timber frame, etc) with acreage, river frontage, etc. and the market
for that type of property is reasonably strong.

If I was determined to work on this idea I might do some research into
metro areas with high bankrupcy, business closures, etc to identify
what areas of the country might be ripe.

Again, hope this helps

Nick

Hi Nick:

Thanks for your insights.

I had a feeling that houses like this would be hard to come by at a
discount, but the people I am working with have been finding them and
buying them in the past few months. They did say that they were
wasting a lot of time dealing with agents; that's why they now only
deal with unlisted houses. Those are the deals that go through for
them.

Their main advice was to get ahold of expired listings. It looks like
that is going to be harder to do than I thought.

Thanks for your help.

Bill