How to Add Geolocation to MLS Data

If you recently acquired an MLS dataset, you probably quickly noticed that many of the locations are missing longitude/latitude location coordinates. With so many MLSes per state and across the country, there is a wide variety in the depth and quality of information they provide. As a result, many MLS datasets are missing the location coordinates that let you put the addresses on a map.

This is vital if you want to be able to display the MLS data on a map with accuracy using tools like Tableau, since Tableau's built-in geocoding is only at the city level.

This guide walks you through how to add coordinates to MLS data using Geocodio. With Geocodio, you can add coordinates from spreadsheets or use our API to integrate geolocation into your tools and add coordinates automatically whenever you get new address data.

Organize the MLS addresses you want to add coordinates to in a spreadsheet

The first step will be to organize the addresses into a spreadsheet with the address information consistently formatted. Your spreadsheet will need to have headers (street, city, state or street + zip). The addresses can all be in one column or in multiple columns, as shown below, as long as it is consistent for the entire spreadsheet.

You can also download an example spreadsheet here. The addresses can be missing information as long as they are all consistently formatted. For example, you can have street + zip for some addresses and street + city + state for others.

You can also download an example completed spreadsheet with counties added here.

Upload the spreadsheet of MLS data missing geolocation to Geocodio

Once your spreadsheet is organized, you can upload it directly to Geocodio. You will select the columns where your data is, see an example of the results, and be able to optionally add on other data (such as school districts or Census tracts).

When we add the coordinates, we'll just add columns to your spreadsheet. We won't delete any information from the spreadsheet. So you can leave columns with other data such as property IDs and feel confident that it'll come back to you in the same order.

If you'd prefer to upload your spreadsheet programmatically, you also have the option to integrate with our Lists API.

Download your geocoded spreadsheet

You will receive an email when your spreadsheet is done processing — no need to stay on the page. You will also be able to download it from the dashboard.

Adding Geolocation Coordinates to MLS Addresses via API

You can also use the Geocodio API to add missing location coordinates to your MLS address data. You can do single requests for real-time geocoding, or use our batch geocoding endpoint to do batches of up to 10,000 lookups at a time. Multiple batches can be run in parallel. See more in our documentation here.

MLS data quality and how Geocodio handles it

If you've spent any time ingesting MLS feeds, you already know. Most feeds give you coordinates. Some don't. Some give you coordinates that are confidently in the wrong neighborhood. Unit numbers arrive as nonsense characters. Street names get typo'd in ways that break exact-match dedupe but slip past fuzzy-match dedupe (which is somehow worse). New developments don't show up in USPS AMS for months. And every realtor types differently. (We've heard the term "horrendous" used more than once, and not by us.)

So if your real estate pipeline currently involves a mix of "the MLS gave us coordinates," "the MLS gave us coordinates but they're wrong," and "the MLS gave us nothing," that's normal.

How real estate teams actually use Geocodio

Real estate teams typically use Geocodio for some combination of these, often in the same ingestion pipeline:

• Filling in missing coordinates when the MLS feed doesn't include them, or replacing the ones that landed two blocks off.

• Correcting and standardizing addresses so your dedupe logic actually works on the cleaned-up version. (See address parsing and standardization.)

• Validating unit numbers via ZIP+4 to catch unit numbers that don't exist in the known range. (See add ZIP+4 to addresses.)

• Appending Census tracts, block groups, school districts, and FFIEC income data so your comp searches can factor in neighborhood characteristics, not just distance. Two properties two miles apart can sit in very different markets.

• Deduplicating against a master address table using stable address keys so the same physical address gets the same identifier every time, no matter how it was typed in.

Most customers run this at ingestion time rather than at request time, so the geocoded coordinates and any appended data live in their database alongside the MLS data. You geocode it once and forget about it until the next batch lands.