What Is IDX?
IDX (Internet Data Exchange) is how MLS Listings end up on a website.
Think of it like a bridge. Your MLS’s database of listings is on one end and consumers are on the other end. Internet data exchange (IDX) connects them and makes it possible for you to display MLS listings on your website. It’s used by everyone from individual agents to listing portals like Zillow alike.
But that’s just the start. Over the years, it has grown into an industry of its own, and IDX vendors now offer a wide range of solutions that go far beyond the basic MLS home-search functionalities. As a result, agents can now better optimize their sites for search engines, which means they can acquire more leads and close more deals.
The History of IDX
IDX technology allows the public to easily access information about every home for sale. Before IDX, it was much harder.
Before the development of IDX, the process of selling and buying a home looked more like this:
- Home seller hires an agent to sell their home.
- Agent adds the seller’s home to the MLS database.
- Home buyer hires an agent to find a home.
- Agent searches the MLS database for a match.
Because only MLS members could access the listings database, buyers sometimes had a difficult time finding their ideal property.
IDX was created to solve this problem.
With the formation of new rules and policies, agents and brokers could display parts of the MLS database on their website using IDX.
Following the creation of IDX policies, MLSs began to offer basic IDX search products as a benefit to their members and property searching soon became a vital part of any real estate website.
Get MLS Listings on Your Website With IDX Today
With Diverse Solutions IDX products, you can easily add MLS listings, property search tools, and lead capture to your website.
IDX Data Feeds
Over time, agents wanted more than the basic search products their MLS offered, so a new raw IDX data feed option was created. Raw data feeds allow agents and brokers to download all available IDX listings in a simple format (similar to an Excel spreadsheet) that could be used with custom home search applications.
IDX Vendors
IDX data feeds provided agents the freedom to create their own custom home search solutions, but most agents lacked the programming know-how and turned to software developers for help implementing the feeds.
As more real estate agents sought out these advanced IDX solutions, new companies that specialized in IDX sites and other search products became known as IDX vendors. These vendors make it easy to add an IDX solution that’s tailored for a specific real estate market, a certain type of buyer, or even a particular business goal.
With the help of IDX vendor products, today you can find IDX in use all over the web. From older-styled search forms to search pages with interactive maps and even mobile IDX apps, it’s now easier than ever to add IDX to a website. Most websites displaying MLS data on their site today use an IDX vendor.
Diverse Solutions—The Leading Provider of IDX Products
Since 2005, Diverse Solutions has been the leading provider of powerful, customizable, and easy-to-implement IDX products. We have the industry-leading MLS coverage—730+ listing feeds. Learn more about how our IDX products will help grow your business today!