I am looking to create a website that will have a database of listings. The listings will get updated and then they will need to appear in a specific format on the website. It would be really sweet if there is a way to make the listings searchable by various tables in the DB. Is any of this possible? I cannot figure out how to get VSD to talk with a MySQL database as it is so any assistance with all this will be greatly appreciated.

Place your PHP code for querying your mysql on a separate html page and either add to your site or ftp it up to your server. Now with an html box code an Iframe into your VSD page and point it at the mysql php page.

Just a thought Nathaniel. You could save to a csv file. that is simple. You can download that file and if you have Access or Spreadsheet skills you could get what you want from that.
What Eric says requires a knowledge of searching the database with queries not hard but would take research.
There are a lot of examples available on the net. If you are going to tackle it yourself then I would advise you to install Wamp so you can test the php, a database plus your form. and as Eric says the display of the results in VSD.

It would be a good idea if you plan to do this yourself to invest in the html editor which does a good job of allowing php code to be created and tested. Save the php file within the www folder and use localhost as a preview Browser. This is the method I use to test forms, php actions with forms and the display of those results. It may seem a bit daunting at first but there are so many examples to try. If you contact me I can get you started.