First i didn't ask "free" i just said i have no budget, so a monthly fee beyond the hosting fee is out of the question. this isn't my website, i'm willing to put it on my server and design it for free as a favor to a family member. i'm not paying $100 a month to a third party IDX just to have itegrated mls.

also, well that's not ttue. literally everything you said it wrong, because i know for a fact that i could easily embed an mls search into in an iframe. i already testd it it. i am absolutely 100% certain i could do that if i wanted to. but i don't. if you know anything about web dev. or seo then you would know why that option isn't ideal and it would be better off to have actual itegration if there's another way to go about doing it that doesn't involve IDX (rets, or an open source api for example)

That being said, the only "free" way to get access to your local MLS database is to screen scrape the listings off of an IDX-enabled site.

I'm trying to be poite because i'm here looking for help. but i'm just going to come out and say this:

48 hours ago i literally didn't know what IDX was or what those letters mean. i don't work in the real estate business. i also only do webdesign as a hobby.

literally everything i know about being a real estate agent and real estate websites i have learned in the last 24-36 hours or so. and i am 100000000% certain that what you just said can't be described as anything besides "shockingly incorrect/wrong/fucking stupid/absolutely retarded"

i dunno what else to say. you just said the only alternative is to screen cap it from another website... do you work in real estate for a living? is this your career?

do you realize how retarded you have to be if it took me a little more than 24 hours to learn more about your job than you know?

i'm sorry, i probably shouldn't have posted this, because it makes me sound like a jerk, and i'm not trying to be, and i'm incredibly greateful for some of the responses here...

but you are an idiot. there's no other way to say it.