What Is IDX in Real Estate? IDX Websites Explained

What does IDX mean in real estate?

IDX is a data-sharing rule, not a product. The MLS is the shared database of listings. IDX is the NAR policy, Statement 7.58, that lets participants authorize "limited electronic display and delivery" of their listings by other participants on websites, mobile apps and audio devices.

An IDX website is any site that shows those listings through a feed from your MLS, usually with a search box and map on top. The feed comes from the MLS. A vendor turns it into pages. Your site supplies the design and everything around the listings.

The policy leans on one idea: control. The display must be under the participant's "actual and apparent control". A visitor should be able to tell whose display it is, and the participant must be able to decide which listings appear and how. That is why your broker's name is on an IDX site, even if an agent paid for it.

What does IDX policy require on your site?

The rules are short, and the ones below come from the handbook. We read the December 2024 PDF on NAR's site, so ask your MLS for its current version, because local rules add to these.

• Tell the MLS you plan to display IDX, and give it direct access so it can monitor compliance.
• Refresh the feed at least every 12 hours. A 2014 copy of the policy still online says three days, so older articles repeat a number that has since changed.
• Show your brokerage name in a readily visible color and typeface. Short displays of 200 characters or less can skip this if they link to a page that has it.
• Choose which listings to show only on objective criteria, such as location, price, property type or listing type.
• Use IDX listings for IDX display and nothing else.
• Leave out any listing or address the seller has told the listing broker to keep off the internet. A seller can also ask you to turn off comments or automated value estimates on their listing.

How do you get IDX on your website?

You start with your broker, because the right to display sits with the MLS participant. An agent needs that person's approval, and sometimes more.

• Ask your broker. The handbook says MLSs "may, but are not required to" let affiliated agents use IDX on their own sites, and that use stays under the participant's consent and control.
• Call your MLS. Ask what paperwork it needs and what it charges. MLSs may pass on the cost of adding or enhancing download capacity as a local option. Requests must be acted on within five business days, barring extenuating circumstances.
• Pick a vendor. Your agreement must leave the participant able to decide which listings show and how, since that is the test for actual control.
• Notify the MLS and give it access to your display.
• Test it. Check the brokerage name, the MLS disclaimers and how fast a status change reaches your site.

IDX vs VOW: which one do you need?

Most agents need IDX. A Virtual Office Website, or VOW, is a separate policy for a logged-in client experience, and it asks a lot more of you.

Does an IDX website help you rank on Google?

IDX gives you a useful search tool, but it gives Google little reason to pick your site. The policy does not stop search engines from indexing IDX pages, so ranking is allowed. The trouble is that every site in your MLS can carry the same listing text. Google asks whether a page offers "original information, reporting, research, or analysis", and copied remarks do not. IDX vendors often add that iframes and subdomains earn your main domain little. That is commercial opinion, though a consistent one, so ask any vendor to show you how the pages are built.

Buyers do search. NAR's 2025 Profile found 52% of buyers found the home they bought on the internet, among people who transacted between July 2024 and June 2025. Yet only 12% of Realtors in NAR's 2025 Technology Survey named their own business website as a top source of quality leads. A feed alone does not close that gap. Neighborhood pages, seller pages and a form that gets answered do more of the work.

Two more points. Listing brokers can show offers of compensation on their own IDX or VOW site, but NAR's settlement FAQ limits that to listings of their own brokerage. And a complete Business Profile on Google and clear pages ChatGPT can read often matter more for your name than the feed does.

GHOBZ, which works with agents, brokers and developers, offers real estate website design with IDX, using your broker's approval and your own vendor account.