What time do MLS listings go live, and when to launch yours
An MLS listing goes live when the board’s system accepts it, which for most boards is shortly after the agent submits it, at any hour, and agents on the board see it first. REALTOR.ca, the data feed and brokerage websites pick it up afterwards on their own schedules, which can lag by hours, so check your board for its real timing. Most agents launch on a weekday morning, often Wednesday or Thursday ahead of weekend showings, with everything ready before they press Submit.
Sellers ask the question in two ways. Some want to know when their home will actually appear online, because they have told their friends to look for it. Others want to know when it should appear, because they have heard that the day and hour matter. Both are fair questions, and the answer to each depends on how a listing travels from your board’s system to the sites buyers use, and on the kind of launch you have planned.
What happens after you press Submit
A new listing passes through a few hands before buyers see it on their phones.
- •The board’s system: when you submit, the board’s MLS system checks the required fields and, unless it holds new listings for review, makes it active. Agents searching the system, and their buyers’ automatic matches, see it first.
- •REALTOR.ca and the national feed: listings reach REALTOR.ca and the data feed that brokerage and agent websites draw from after that, on the feed’s update cycle. A listing submitted late in the day may not appear on the public sites until later that night or the next morning.
- •Brokerage and agent websites: each website pulls the feed on its own schedule, some several times a day and some overnight, so the same listing can show up on one site hours before another.
- •Buyer alerts: saved-search emails and app notifications go out when each site refreshes, so the buyer who gets the alert first is often the one whose agent set it up inside the board’s system.
Timing varies by board and by feed, and it changes as systems are updated. Before you tell a seller “it’ll be on REALTOR.ca by noon”, ask your board how it handles new listings, and look at when your last few launches actually appeared.
The best day and time to launch
There is no single right hour, but most agents plan backwards from when the first showings should happen.
| Launch timing | Why agents use it | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday morning, any day | Agents are at their desks, alerts land while buyers are reading email, and you have the whole day to answer calls. | A late-morning submit may miss the public sites’ first refresh of the day. |
| Wednesday or Thursday | Gives buyers two or three days to book for the weekend, so the first open house and the busiest showing days arrive together. | Showing requests can pile up on Saturday; set the booking windows with the seller first. |
| Monday or Tuesday with a holding date | A full week of showings before offer night, with time for buyers to arrange financing and inspections. | The seller needs to understand the risk and their options on early offers; see the holding offers post. |
If you are holding offers, count back from the offer date: most agents want a full week of showings and a weekend before offer night. If you take offers anytime, the launch day matters less than being ready to answer the phone when it goes live. Friday evening launches are the ones most agents avoid, since alerts land as people log off and questions wait until Monday.
If you marketed the property as coming soon, the launch day may be set by your board’s rules on how soon a listing must follow public marketing. The coming soon post covers those rules, so plan the coming soon period and the go-live date together.
What to have ready before you press Submit
Day one gets the most attention a listing will ever get, so anything missing that day is missing in front of the largest audience.
- •Photos in order: the full set, edited and sequenced with the strongest exterior or main room first. A few phone photos and a promise of the rest wastes the day-one alerts.
- •Remarks that fit the board’s boxes: the public description, private remarks for agents, and offer remarks if you are holding offers. A description cut off at the board’s character limit reads badly in every feed it reaches.
- •Showing instructions: how to book, how much notice the seller needs, where the lockbox is and any rules for the visit, agreed with the seller in writing. The first agents to call will ask.
- •Social posts written and scheduled: the just-listed caption, the walkthrough video or reel, and the stories, ready to go out the moment the listing is live on the public sites.
- •The just-listed email: one for your database and one for the neighbours, written and waiting. Neighbours sometimes know the buyer.
- •The listing page link: a page you can share in posts and emails, so you are not waiting for a portal to refresh before you can announce.
- •The dates: open house times, the offer date if there is one, and the review date you agreed with the seller, on your calendar and theirs.
Once it appears on the public site, search for it as a buyer would. A typo in the address or a price with an extra zero is easier to fix in the first hour than after the alerts go out.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take for a listing to show up on REALTOR.ca?
It depends on your board and on the feed’s update cycle. Agents on the board usually see it soon after you submit; the public sites follow after that, sometimes within hours and sometimes the next morning. Check with your board for its current timing.
Do listings go live overnight?
A listing submitted in the evening is active on the board when it is accepted, but brokerage sites that refresh overnight may not show it until morning. Most agents avoid evening submits so the alerts land while people are working.
Is Thursday the best day to list a house?
Many agents choose Thursday because it gives buyers a couple of days to book for the weekend and puts the first open house close to launch. A Monday or Tuesday launch can suit a listing holding offers, since it gives a full week of showings first.
Should I post on social media before the listing is on the MLS?
Public marketing before a listing is on the MLS can start a clock under your board’s rules on how soon the listing must follow. Read the coming soon post and check your board before you post.
How Listing Launchpad handles launch day
Listing Launchpad was built so the launch kit is finished before launch day: you enter the property once and the rest is written from it.
- •Remarks cut off by the board: the MLS description generator writes the public, private, showing and offer remarks from the listing, each held to the smaller of the Matrix and Realm length limits, with a counter beside the text.
- •Showing instructions written at the last minute: the showing remarks are one of the four remark fields, written from the listing with booking and access instructions, ready to edit.
- •Posts and emails that are not ready when it goes live: one caption for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and X, a walkthrough video script, and the Just Listed, Neighbour Outreach and Open House Invite emails are written from the same listing, so they are done before you submit.
- •Waiting for a portal to refresh: each listing can have its own public page with a showing request form and a social share card, so you have a link to share the moment you publish it.
- •Dates that live in your head: the listing’s timeline starts with go-live, the open houses and offer presentation, and syncs to Google, Apple or Outlook calendar.
The remarks, captions, listing emails, listing page and timeline are on every plan, Free included, with AI copy coming out of the plan’s monthly allowance. Designed social graphics use AI Credits (every account starts with 5, and each paid plan adds more each month), and the listing page carries a small Listing Launchpad credit on Free and Starter.
Robert Cekan is a REALTOR® in Hamilton, Ontario, the publisher of Urbanicity Hamilton, and the founder of Listing Launchpad. The playbooks here come from running real listings.