How to access the North West Multiple Listing Service’s (NWMLS) IDX data

Skip to the end of this article if you’re interested in the easy way to access IDX data from NWMLS.

First, the hard way…

If you’re a real estate agent and you’re interested in accessing NWMLS IDX data to build a custom website or app for your real estate business, follow these steps:

Complete the data access and use agreement (form 110)

This is basically an agreement that is mandatory in order to gain access to NWMLS data. Your broker of record will have to sign it to authorize your use of the data. On this agreement, you’ll need to list the website URLs that you intend to use, so be sure to decide what domain names you’ll be using first.

To request this form, you can simply email idx@nwmls.com.

Wait.

When I applied for data access, it took approximately two weeks for NWMLS to process my application. In between, you should expect a few follow-up questions from the NWMLS administration regarding your use case for the data.

Once your application has been processed, you’ll receive a username and password that’s used to access all NWMLS IDX services.

Join the NWMLS-EverNet Yahoo Group

NWMLS will send you some high level instructions on how to access IDX data; However, to get documentation and support, you’ll have to join their Yahoo Group. The documentation is community-sourced and the support is community-driven, so you’re basically on your own.

Use the SOAP Webservice to download listing data and image data

SOAP? If you’re a real estate agent, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. If you’re a programmer, you might, depending on what year you were born in.

Of course, connecting to the SOAP Webservice isn’t the best practice for pulling listing information into your website in real-time. You’ll need to create a database to store the information and check for updates and new listing information on a regular basis.

Connect to the FTP server to download images

Remember FTP? This is how geeks shared files in the 90s.

It took me about three weeks to download all of the photos for active listings on NWMLS and that wasn’t enough — they were extremely large in file size so in order to make them adequate for web use, I had to compress them. I also had to create a flow to compress the new images that I get from NWMLS on a regular basis.

2 months later …

If you have the stamina and are willing to learn some old technologies that you’ll probably never use again, you should be able to start building your website/app approximately 2 months after you get access to NWMLS IDX.

The easy way.

Use Repliers. Full disclosure; I’m a Co-Founder.

Have your developer take a look at our docs (https://docs.repliers.io) and the decision will be obvious; it’ll save them hundreds of hours.

Repliers has done all of the heavy lifting described above and has created a REST API for accessing NWMLS listing data and images in real-time. You can begin developing your website/app as soon as you get authorization from NWMLS — all you have to do is complete form 110.

If you’re new to NWMLS and have questions, feel free to reach out to me directly (pat@repliers.io). I’m always happy to meet and help others in the proptech space.