Bright MLS IDX for your real estate website

How the Bright MLS connection works

Bright MLS was born in 2015, when 43 associations came together to build one MLS for the Mid-Atlantic. Its service area takes in every county in Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, DC, plus listed counties in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, including Philadelphia, Fairfax, and Arlington.

Bright delivers data through its own RESO Web API, which follows the RESO Web API standard and Data Dictionary, rather than through a platform such as MLS Grid or Bridge. Data access isn’t part of a standard Bright subscription. It needs a separate license agreement with Bright.

In July 2026, Bright replaced its separate IDX and VOW rules with one Policy on Advertising Display for Consumers. That’s the policy your website follows.

How to get connected

1. Request IDX access in your Bright account. In your Bright MLS workspace, go to Account & Settings, choose IDX & VOW Data Licensing, pick your vendor, and enter your website address. Bright’s data access page walks through it.
2. Your broker approves. Every request goes to your broker for approval. Brokers authorize their agents’ separate websites with a form from Bright, and keep consent and control over them.
3. Bright licenses the vendor. Vendors apply to Bright, go through a review of licensing, compliance, and security, and sign Bright’s license agreement before providing data to clients.

Once you sign up, we set up the Bright MLS connection with you. Bright handles its data access approval, and we handle the rest.

Bright MLS may charge its own MLS data fees for access to your listing data. Its rules say Bright charges fees for all sites and apps that let the public search and view listings, under its license agreement and fee schedule. Those fees are set by Bright, are separate from your Listify IDX subscription, and are paid by you. We never mark them up. See our Terms of Use.

What visitors see on your website

Bright’s 2026 display policy (Appendix G of its rules) sets out what your site shows:

• “Listing Courtesy of” the listing brokerage on every listing page, with the listing broker’s lead email and phone number when Bright provides them.
• Bright’s notices. Every page with listings says “Property information provided by Bright MLS” and “© 2026 Bright MLS.” Listing pages also say the information is for consumers’ personal, non-commercial use, isn’t guaranteed, may not reflect the current status of the sale, and when it was last updated.
• Every photo and link Bright provides appears on the listing page.
• Held-back details stay off. When a listing broker and seller ask Bright to withhold information or photos, the site leaves them out or says “Contact Listing Agent for Additional Information.”
• No excluding brokerages. A site can narrow listings only by objective criteria, never by who listed them, and then must say listings have been excluded from display.
• Search engines are welcome. Bright lets sites allow search engines to index the listings they show.

Bright’s policy also asks sites to run Bright’s monitoring code and to have visitors accept terms of use that prohibit scraping. We set up your search to meet these rules when we connect your feed.

What you need

• A Bright MLS subscription, a Bright data license for your website, and your broker’s approval.
• Your firm’s name and your states of licensure shown clearly on your website, as Bright requires for agent sites.
• A site name that doesn’t sound like an MLS. Bright doesn’t allow a website name or address that suggests it’s an MLS, so a name like “the MLS search” is out.
• A website where you can add your own code. Any website builder with a code embed or custom HTML block works.
• A Listify IDX account on the Plus plan or higher, which includes MLS feeds.