MLS Listings Kelowna British Columbia

Do a quick search online and you’ll find that an MLS listing in Kelowna puts any home on the market out there for people to find. The difference between putting a tiny sign on the lawn to listing it on a nationally-recognized site is immeasurable. But what should you know about the listings you can find on the MLS? MLS listings in Kelowna, in particular, allow anybody looking across the country to find what they’re looking for, narrow down their search to the parameters they choose, and also research the area.

It used to be the case that only agents had instant access to the homes listed online. But thanks to some deregulation, that is changing, allowing buyers all over the country to see the current homes for sale. Here’s what you need to know about browsing the listings online and how to find the perfect home amidst the thousands of listings you’re likely to come across.

Browse The Kelowna MLS Below 

What Does The MLS Service Offer?

The Multiple Listing Service, or more commonly called the MLS is a service that allows agents and buyers to scour the available listings in any given area. The service is a conglomerate of all listings across all professional agents. Because the real estate industry is very much about mutual benefit, as in “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”, this one service allows anybody and everybody to quickly scan the listings in an area.

You won’t find every single house on the MLS though. Many For Sale By Owner listings in Kelowna aren’t on the MLS site unless they’ve been placed there by a registered real estate agent on behalf of the seller. But at best, you’re seeing 95-98% of all available homes and properties for sale on the site.

The real benefit to using our MLS Listings:

  • Fewer conflicts of interest for the buyers and sellers involved
  • A much wider range of potential clients to showcase a home
  • A vastly larger selection of properties
  • Instant access to listing information
  • A supercharged searching process

Rather than depending on your local broker to show what listings they have on the books, you have at your fingertips, the whole host of homes, condos, townhouses, and apartments on offer.  


Kelowna Info

 • Type: Elected city council

 • Body Kelowna City Council

 • Mayor: Colin Basran

 • MP: Stephen Fuhr

 • MLAs: Steve Thomson, Norm Letnick

Area

 • City:  211.82 km2 (81.78 sq mi)

 • Metro:  2,904.86 km2 (1,121.57 sq mi)

Elevation: 344 m (1,129 ft)

Population:  127,380

 • Density: 601.3/km2 (1,557/sq mi)

 • Urban: 151,957

 • Metro: 194,882

Time zone: UTC-8 (Pacific Time Zone)

What Am I Likely To See On The MLS?

At first glance, it’s not that complicated to understand what you’re looking at for MLS listings in Kelowna. Using the simple interface and an intuitive searching mechanism, you can narrow your search to a specific street or broaden your search to include any number of factors. You determine the type of homes you’re looking for, the bedrooms, the price range, the number of bathrooms, and a whole host of other specific filters that could apply to your search. But as you become familiar with the site, you’ll discover that there are more data points to use in your search for the perfect place to live.

For instance, apply the filter to reduce the listings that were listed since a certain date, giving you the most recent listings on the site. Or you could look for land size, finding properties in outer Rutland with stunning views of the valley and prime position for your very own winery or a yard for horses. The benefit of using the smart search function is that you can view all properties at once or as few as you need.

Apply different terms to search for neighbourhoods or the entire Kelowna area. You can even use the specific MLS number assigned to each unique property listed on the site to find that perfect home to take a second look.

How I Read an MLS Listing in Kelowna?

Ok, now that you’ve been spending some time on the MLS listings in Kelowna, how do you read what you’re seeing?

The first part of the listing that matters is going to be the price. Once you’ve found a property, that price is prominently displayed because that’s what people are looking for first. Use that number to refine your search if you need to as well.

Next, you’re going to notice that the property has the name of the listing agent and brokerage on there. They will have all the contact details of the agent for the home, or the owner if it’s an FSBO property. They should also have a link out their REALTOR®? site for any additional information about the listing agent that you need.

Following that, you’re going to have a selection of photos of the property. You can scan them on the listing page or click on the link to open a new window with the slideshow of images. Browse and enlarge the photos you’d like to see. Many agents also use this as an opportunity to showcase luxurious homes through videos as well, giving you the complete tour of the property as a walkthrough.

Beyond this, you’ll find a description, no more than 1000 characters of the property. The listing agent posts the description, usually featuring the best attributes that you should know about the property including the size of the home, the bedrooms, any work completed to the home and anything else worth mentioning.

Next, you’ll have a more formal description on the listing, a property summary with all the elements in one place for you to see. This will include property type, the storeys, the neighbourhood of the home, the type of title, land size, build date, and the parking of the home. This is also where the agent has the opportunity to upload further photos that weren't included in the listing photo slideshow, often directly linked to the listing brokerage site.   

As you scroll down, you’ll find that the listing should have a complete rundown of all relevant factors of the home. In here, you’ll find features of the home like if it has a central vacuum, what stage the basement development is, the type of flooring used throughout the home, heating and cooling details, and structures included with the property. Also, this is where you’ll find the official floor space of the home, giving you a good indication of the actual size of the property.

You’ll also have access to details like the outdoor features of the home, roofing style, exterior finish, pool (if any), utilities of the property, and some of the features of the land around the home. You’d use this to discover if there are gardens, if the lawn is landscaped, and what views you’ll have with the property. Get to know these features as well as the neighbourhood features of the home, listing it as quiet, easy to access, and a listing of the popular amenities in the area.

What Information Do I Need To Know?

Typical MLS listings in Kelowna also give you access to a whole host of data points. You can learn more about the demographics of the region, the median age of the households around the home, and average household income. Most of these stats are provided by Statistics Canada. For example, the stats of Lakeview Heights list the average income over $140,000 per household and a median age of 54 years for an average resident here. This isn’t where you’ll find many first-time home buyers.

You can also use the handy calculators to some preliminary numbers on the asking price and mortgage rates. Just be aware that this is a guide only and to be used only to roughly determine the monthly repayments on any property you find there. You can figure out tax closing costs, mortgage repayments, cash expenditures, and typical utility bills for a property of that size and nature.     

The MLS listings in Kelowna are an incredibly handy way to find the property of your dreams. But use it to guide your search, filtering out the properties that don’t apply and narrowing in on that one home that you’ve been searching for. It’s a great tool, but your best is always to use a professional real estate agent to guide you through the process.