Website launch: connect your MLS board
The BrokerFold Team — Product + Engineering
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This is the only launch step with a third party in the critical path, so start it first — the day you create your account, not the day the design is finished. Everything else in this track can proceed while the board processes your paperwork.
Know what you are applying for
Two data agreements matter. IDX licenses active listings for display on your public site. VOW licenses more — including sold data where your board permits it — shown only to visitors who register and sign in. The distinction shapes your site’s capture strategy, so if the acronyms are new, read IDX vs VOW before filing; the practical advice is to file both together, since they ride the same signature run.
Pull the vendor details from your dashboard
Your board’s forms will ask who your technical vendor is and where the data will be displayed. Open MLS setup in your dashboard: it lists the vendor details your board’s paperwork asks for, including your exact website address ready to copy. Use it verbatim — a URL typed from memory that does not match what the board approves is a genuinely silly way to lose a week.
For TRREB specifically, the agreement includes Schedule B, the page naming the vendor and the site; here is what it is and how to fill it, and the wider walkthrough lives at getting TRREB listings on your website. On other boards the form names differ but the substance — member, brokerage, vendor, display URL — is the same.
The broker signature is the critical path
Data agreements are signed by you and your broker of record. In practice this signature, not the board queue, is where applications stall — brokers are busy, and an unsigned PDF in an inbox does not age well. Hand your broker the completed package personally, say what it is and that it is time-sensitive, and follow up within days, not weeks. Approval timelines and the common stall patterns are documented here.
While you wait, the site still works
Until your board approval lands, your site serves clearly labeled sample listings — the search, map, and property pages all function, so you can finish your template, homepage, and community pages against a working site. Nothing about the wait blocks the rest of this track. When approval is recorded, the switch is flipped on our side and your board’s live inventory replaces the samples. What happens between the MLS and your pages at that point has its own lesson: why listings appear when they do.
What done looks like
Paperwork submitted with the dashboard-supplied vendor details and URL; broker signature confirmed, not assumed; and the application acknowledged by the board. Then check your site the day approval arrives — live listings on the grid is the finish line.
The mistake that costs the most
Treating this as a launch-week task. Filed late, the board wait lands exactly when you wanted to announce, and a site full of sample data is a deflating thing to promote. File first, build during the wait, and the two timelines finish together — which is precisely how the pre-launch checklist sequences it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does board approval take?
It varies by board and season — generally days to a few weeks, and the broker-of-record signature is usually the slowest step, not the board itself. Start the paperwork the day you sign up and the wait overlaps work you were doing anyway.
Do I need both IDX and VOW?
IDX puts active listings on your public site; VOW lets registered, signed-in visitors see sold data where the board permits it. Most agents file both at once — same signature run, and sold data is one of the strongest reasons visitors register.
Keep reading
- Website launch: why listings appear when they do Your board approved you, but a brand-new listing is not on your site yet. The completeness gate, photo mirroring, and honest timing.
- Website launch: the pre-launch checklist The final pass before you share the link: checks across identity, content, data, capture, legal, and mobile — in the order that finds problems.
- How to get TRREB listings on my website Two routes: a platform that holds TRREB/PropTx data agreements, or building direct against the RESO Web API. The steps, the approvals, and the slow part.
- What is Schedule B in the TRREB agreement Schedule B records your technology vendor and website URL inside TRREB's data agreements. What it asks for and where the exact values live.
- How long does TRREB IDX approval take? Realistic TRREB IDX timelines: about a day at the fast end, one to two weeks typically — and why almost all the variance is one signature queue.
- IDX vs VOW IDX shows active listings to everyone; VOW adds sold and off-market data behind free registration. Most Ontario agents should run both. Where DDF fits.