MLS data

MLS data is the one thing in Backhouse you can't turn on yourself in a click. Every MLS licenses its data per brokerage, and your broker of record has to sign for it. So this is a request, some paperwork we handle, and then an email when your feed goes live.

How to request it

1. Go to Settings > Connected tools
2. Click Connect on the MLS card
3. Pick your board, then click Request activation

That's your whole part. Backhouse coordinates the data license with your brokerage from there, and you'll get an email when the board is live. The card reads Activation in progress for that board in the meantime, so you're not left wondering whether it went through.

Activation is a workspace-level thing, so only owners and admins can request it. If you're a member and you ask your assistant for something that needs MLS data, it'll offer to let your admins know rather than sending you to a page you can't act on.

Supported boards

Every board that distributes its data through MLS Grid, about 37 across the country, from Unlock MLS in Austin to NWMLS in Seattle. The picker lists them by market, so look for your city. Some go live faster than others, since a board we already receive only needs your brokerage's paperwork.

NTREIS, HAR, and SABOR aren't on MLS Grid, so we can't activate them yet. If your board isn't in the picker, tell us which one you're on and it goes on the list of what to add next.

What activation turns on

Once a board is active, it's active for everyone in the workspace, not just the person who requested it.

• Listing search. Look up any listing on that board by MLS number or by address.
• Comps and CMAs. Your assistant can pull nearby solds, propose adjustments, and build a price range off real numbers instead of asking you for them.
• Photos. Listing photos come through with the data, so a property you pull in arrives with its images.
• Prefilled properties. Adding a property from an MLS listing brings the address, beds, baths, square footage, year built, and price with it, rather than you typing them.

Until it's active

Backhouse works without MLS data. Transactions, contacts, documents, email, and your calendar all run fine, and you can create a property by typing the address like any other record.

What doesn't work is anything that reads the feed. Listing lookups, comp pulls, and CMAs will tell you the workspace isn't connected to an MLS yet and point you at the request rather than guessing at numbers. That's deliberate. A comp set invented from nothing is worse than no comp set.

Your board membership is a separate thing

Settings > Licenses and MLS is where you record which boards you personally belong to and your agent ID on each. That's your own credential, and it's what identifies you on listings in MLS data. Agents near a board boundary often belong to two or three.

Recording a membership there does not turn on data. The two look related and aren't: your membership is about who you are, the workspace activation is about what your brokerage is licensed to receive. You can have one without the other, and most people do at first.