What Are Site Influences?
In real estate, site influences are things that affect a property (the site), usually in a positive way. Since there isn’t always room to list these influences in a description on a real estate listing, there is a field on a listing where these can go. Site influences can be on the property itself, or nearby.
Real Estate Agent Explains Site Influences
Site influences can be anything from private airstrip to a paved lane to a lake view or nearby shopping. Almost anything can affect a property’s value in reality, but there are only 60 site influences available for real estate agents to choose from to describe a property. It should be noted that site influences do not actually have to be on the property itself, but they may be. For example, a fruit tree would likely be located on a property, but a public swimming pool would not be. Amenities, on the other hand, are things that are specifically included on the property itself.
Some abbreviations can be really confusing, so if you’re ever wondering what one of them means, check out this chart. These are the site influences that you might see on an MLS listing:
| Site Influence | MLS Abbreviation |
| Private Air Strip | AIR/S |
| Beach Access | BEACC |
| Backs Onto Lake | BLAKE |
| Backs Onto Park/Trees | BTREE |
| Boating | BOAT |
| Commercial | COMM |
| Corner | CORNR |
| Creek | CREEK |
| Crossed Fenced | CRFEN |
| Crown Rights | CROWN |
| Cul-De-Sac | CULD |
| Environmental Reserve | ENVIR |
| Fenced | FENCE |
| Flat Site | FLAT |
| Fruit Trees/Shrubs | FRUIT |
| Vegetable Garden | GARDN |
| Gated Community | GATED |
| Golf Nearby | GOLF |
| Handicap Access | HCAP |
| Hillside | HSIDE |
| Back Lane | LANE |
| Paved Lane | LANEP |
| Level Land | LEVEL |
| Lake Access Property | LKACC |
| Landscaped | LNSCA |
| Low Maintenance Landscape | LNSCL |
| Partially Landscaped | LNSCP |
| Not Fenced | N-FNC |
| Not Landscaped | N-LSC |
| No Back Lane | NLANE |
| None | NONE |
| No Stones | NOSTN |
| No Through Road | NTHRU |
| Park/Reserve | PARK |
| Playground Nearby | PLAY |
| Stream/Pond | POND |
| Public Swimming Pool | POOLP |
| Private Setting | PRIV |
| Private Fishing | PRIVF |
| Race Track | RACE |
| Recreation Use | RECRE |
| See Remarks | REMKS |
| River View | RIVER |
| Rolling Land | ROLL |
| Ravine View | RVINE |
| Schools | SCHLS |
| Shopping Nearby | SHOP |
| Ski Hill | SKI |
| Sloping Lot | SLOPE |
| Stones | STONE |
| Subdividable Lot | SUBDV |
| Public Transportation | TRANS |
| Treed Lot | TREED |
| River Valley View | VALLY |
| View City | VCITY |
| View Downtown | VDWNT |
| View | VIEW |
| View Lake | VLAKE |
| View Mountain | VMTN |
| Water Front | WTRFR |
You can see how many options there are to choose from. Now, almost no property has a private race track, but almost every one has schools nearby (at least in Edmonton, anyway). Frequently influences will be left out because there are too many to list, but the most important or valuable ones should be listed. I can’t imagine a piece of real estate that has no site influences at all, so the entry “none” likely never applies.
Why does It Matter?
If you are looking for a property with a view of downtown Edmonton, you may actually limit a search to listings with this in the site influences field. This could be a very quick way to narrow down your search. If your home is for sale, these are advertising tools to show how wonderful your home is and may help you attract just the right kind of buyer. Because these fields are standardized and searchable, they are much more useful than something simply written in a descriptive paragraph. Next time you see a listing, check out the site influences, you might be surprised at what a property has to offer.
