[photopress:lis_robot.jpg,thumb,alignright]The MLS data is already “Garbage IN” today, before noon on the first day of the new year.
Not only is garbage going in, but it is also coming out, with some VERY popular public search sites showing properties as “ZERO days on market” that are NOT new listings.
Well, at least those trying to fool the public ended up the fools. Yes folks, same glitch this year as last year. Agents who jumped in without testing the water first, thinking they would get that NEW mls sequence of 27xxxxxx…failed in their efforts. The clock didn’t start over and so re-entering their old listing to get a 2007 number didn’t work. Kind of falls into that “You can’t kid a kidder” arena.
Yes an agent IS allowed to “get a new number” IF there is a huge price change, or the owner takes the property off and puts in a brand new kitchen. In other words there are some exceptions to the rule. But most of the ones who tried to “grab the brass ring” today, did so against the rules. Same price. Same old listing. Just trying to get a new number.
But the real “DANGER, WILL ROBINSON” message here is to the consumer’s seeing ZERO days on market! Do NOT run over there to be the first to see it, and the first to get an offer in, without first checking the REAL property history on “purported to be new” listings.
It’s amazing how some folks spend more time trying to trick the system than actually selling.
Personally, I’d love to see the Days on Market disappear from the listing if not forever then at least until the close. There are so many causes of a home sitting on the market, many of which dealing more with the acute stubbornness of the owner or an agent’s desire to purchase a listing than with any material fact about the house itself.
The change never will happen, of course, but we can dream.
Best way to get a “27” number … get a listing in 2007. I’ll have one of my own up and running tomorrow. Now we just need to sell it.
Jonathan,
Days on market is VERY important to a buyer consumer and should not be overlooked. Clearly a home sitting on market for nine months, at the same price, should not sell at full price. How can you dispute that? Also the buyer needs to know that it is a hard to sell house, as they will likely have the same problem when they go to sell it.
The brand new listings didn’t get a 27 number either. We had this glitch last year. Last until the 5th or 6th and agents were permitted to tradein the old number for a new one if they were one of the listings that got “glitched”.
Our (NH) MLS tracks by address. So even if a new number is issued..nobody is fooled by the DOM…any good agent knows to track by address. Guess they did something right, not much but something.
Ardell, I saw an agent re list his own personal home which has been on the market for 6 months, he entered the info on New Years Eve, got a 26 number, indicated no showings until January 2 and also raised the price by $45,000. I always look at the history when it has potential for a client. Best, Howard
per the NWMLS home page:
Reminder: Cancelling a listing and re-inputting it in order to get a new listing number is a violation of NWMLS Rules and Regulations.
If there are people doing this then they need to be turned in to the NWMLS for violations.
We have people trying all these tired old tricks on this side of the mountains too. Most of the buyers I work with are buying vacation homes or second homes. The first thing I help them realize is that the way the market works in one locale is not the way it works everywhere. 45 days on market here is not an enternity (that’s 365 days). New construction in Leavenworth usually doesn’t pre-sell (though it often does in Wenatchee). So a new construction home with 150+ days isn’t that unusual. Last year I ended up in a multiple offer scenario with a house that had been listed for 6 months. Talk about bad timing!
Who is supposed to clear situations when an agent is violating the MSL rules? What should one actually do about it?
Well Joe, you have to remember that they are doing this for the benefit of the seller, and sometimes they ARE allowed and sometimes not…which is confusing.
Say you listed your house for $599,000 and then realized it was way off and reduced it to $499,000. The mls does permit you to get a new number as it really isn’t fair at $499,000 to say it’s been on market 60 days without ALSO saying BUT it was $100,000 more.
So it wouldn’t be fair to never allow it. In fact we always WERE allowed to do it (and often did) before the public was viewing things, as agents could always trace the property history via our version of the MLS.
My main concern is when a public site says Days on Market 0, when it is not 0, but a little birdie told me they are working on that since reading my article 🙂
The rule only came out because of the public sites, not the mls site.
Ooops, Joe, didn’t answer the question, as usual…
You pick up the phone and call the mls. Say someone did this or that. You can also email them. Then you leave it up to them to determine if this is an “allowed time to do that” or not. Best I know, as long as the seller directs you to do it for their reason, not much the mls rules can do about that. I don’t think the mls is allowed to tell owners what they can and can’t do. But if an agent does it all the time, it becomes obvious it is not the seller directing the action.