NWMLS to Allow Brokerages to share more Data

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service has announced policy changes that will allow brokerages to display more information on their websites. This means that if brokerages choose to, people will be able to see the length of time a property has been on the market, referred to as days-on-market (DOM), as well as cumulative-days-on-market (CDOM), along with the listing price adjustment history. The NWMLS will only allow the DOM to be shown if the CDOM is also displayed in order to insure that consumers are not mislead.

Another change for brokerages is that they now have access to three download feeds instead of just two. This could be significant for brokerages that want more options and vendors to choose from to manage their data feeds for property searches, which they make available to agents and the public.

52 thoughts on “NWMLS to Allow Brokerages to share more Data

  1. Hard to tell, but probably. I’ve been bitching about honestly reporting days of the market for years, so I think my internal hypocrisy meter would have exploded if I didn’t.

    If a house sits, it’s pretty strong evidence that it’s over-priced (or in such poor state to show that no one can see it’s value). If my house was on the market even two weeks (given it was in decent shape to show), I would have strongly considered slashing my price signficantly so I wouldn’t be sitting and fretting about it in June or July. Or god forbid August.

  2. This is indeed good news. Though, another feed? Why not put it in the existing feed?

    @Leanne, I don’t see the point of hiding it from the public as an interested buyer will always be able to have their agent look it up in the MLS. Why not make it public from the beginning?

  3. Matt – the DOM/CDOM data approved for “Website Fields” and the ability of brokerages to have an additional feed (from 2 to 3) are separate issues that were approved by the NWMLS Data Use Strategy Task Force.

    It’s my understanding that all the “Website Fields” approved for republishing will be in all three feeds.

  4. biliruben,

    In response to your #5, we don’t cancel and re-list to change the days on market, as we always see the cumulative days on market. With this change in policy, so will everyone else.

    We are allowed to cancel and re-list if there is a significant change so that we get an updated mls# and also so the property is newly presented to the auto feeds of new properties to agents and potential buyers. It’s permission to say “Hey, look at us NOW!”, not permission to alter the days on market.

    The “Hey, look at us NOW!” re-list is permitted if there is a substantial price reduction (usually 5% or more) or if the condition has been substantially changed, like taken off market and a new kitchen and new master bath put in.

    This has confused the public, I know, but it is not meant to be deceptive. It is a permission granted to boost a stale listing, but ONLY if the seller has made a substantial change to warrant “a second announcement” as “new listing”.

    Of course not all agents are well versed in all of the rules, so you will find people cancelling and re-listing without a 5% or more price drop or condition change. You will never get every mls member to comply with or even know ALL of the many rules. Usually there is a warning for a first time offense, or a deferred penalty that kicks back in if they do it again after having been warned.

    Making price changes back and forth of $1 to get on “the hotsheet” repeatedly is also against the rules and subject to a hefty fine. But I must admit, before it was against the rules, we did it all the time 🙂

  5. Until 4 or 5 years ago, the entire NWMLS relied only DOM. I fought for CDOM for years via feedback forms and any audience I could get with the NWMLS.

    The only way we used to get accurate CDOM infromation was to manually go through the property history of each listing that appeared on a market analysis.

    So, I have the same gripe with Broker websites that advertise DOM. It should be CDOM, or nothing. Broker websites that advertise only DOM deceive the public.

    There are always exceptions, however the number one reason that CDOM accumulates for the seller is that they are not positioned pricewise correctly for the market. If sellers and agents don’t want gross CDOM statistics, the property needs to be positioned correctly for condition and the market.

    CDOM is a tool to help us get it right, both for buyers and sellers.

  6. Well, all of you next year tell me how you like being the listing agent of a ‘new’ listing that you get on day 192 of the CDOM history. I had that 2 years ago, my seller made some mistakes choosing his first agent, and I inherited a tough marketing job because of his previous errors.

    I believe that the seller sold for below market due to the stigma of CDOM. Same house, no prior listing history, would have sold for more. Every call I got was ‘what’s wrong with this house’ … nothing, except the other agent priced it insanely high, and seller was naive enough not to question her. Costco referral.

    Buyers love CDOM, but CDOM can be a problem for sellers. Not all sellers are sophisticated enough to understand the need to price appropriately. Now that the market is changing to slower times, it will be interesting to see if future sellers (who once were buyers looking at CDOM’s) feel that CDOM is critical. I think the value of CDOM depends on which side of the fence you’re on. Are you the buyer, or are you the seller?

    I disagree with the term “hiding”. Is it “hiding” to balance the presentation of information? Do you want the Form 17 to be disclosed to buyers who are just cruising the internet? I think not, and same thing re: CDOM. At some point before writing an offer, buyer should see both: the CDOM & sellers disclosures, but not necessarily online.

    What I think is that CDOM shouldn’t be the first thing a buyer sees when reading about a property. Let buyers be open minded to the description and photos, go see the property if they like what they have read, and when they decide they are truly interested, they should then have opportunity to see CDOM and pricing history, as well as sellers disclosures.

    As they say, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression, and a long CDOM is not a good first impression. Many sellers will have long CDOM’s in the next year or so, and this will hurt them.

    Is that reasonable? I think not — the house is still the same, but the CDOM stigma will cost the seller something, which seems less than balanced to me. One stubborn seller with a long CDOM selling for less because of that than his identical neighbor who listed at the correct price and sold in a month?

    “same same”, but one with a long CDOM can become a penalty for bad judgement … hmmm. How will it feel when that seller shoe is on your foot?

  7. Leanne,
    I just took a listing in Seattle that had over 250 days. It started at $800k and the listing expired at $700k. We started $50k off that which in my mind would have been more correct when she started. The seller was looking to her agent to tell her what to do and followed her agents pricing suggestions. Things are happening with this property now.

    The important thing is that the house was NEVER worth $800k in any market. The difference between $800k and $650k was dream equity.

    In declining markets, sellers need to price ahead of the curve to avoid chasing the market down. I posted this yesterday.
    [link]http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/realestate/archives/140217.asp[/link]

    There are very few buyers who won’t discover CDOM. If a represented Buyer did buy a house with high CDOM and it was NOT disclosed, they may feel like the agent was negligent in negotiation.

    I agree a high CDOM creates a stigma. It’s up to the seller to make sure it doesn’t happen, but many of them can be pretty stubborn. We also have to acknowledge that there are many agents who aren’t understanding what’s happening, as well. Bottom line, however, is when the buyer sees CDOM, they will ALWAYS factor it in negotiation.

    Companies were misleading the public by publishing DOM, which did not represent the truth. The only alternative is to either give the public the correct information or force these companies to withdraw publishing DOM.

    In the world of 2.0, it’s hard to take away, the public has the taste.

  8. If I see a house 10% over my budget with a DOM of 2, I ignore it, or at best save it to watch if I really like it.

    If I see a house 10% over my budget with a DOM of 200, I think “this might just be the house for us”. It’s obviously over-priced if it hasn’t seen any action in 200 days, so I might consider spending time putting together an offer.

    Leanne – a obviously completely disagree with you. Why wouldn’t you want a buyer to know all the info so they know whether to waste the seller and agent’s time? Publish the form 17 is well. In fact, I’d go further. I’d make it a law that all past inspection reports be cataloged in a library and be public information.

  9. Here’s an old rule of negotiation that we didn’t think about much the last several years.

    “Time is the enemy of the Seller.”

    When properties sold in a matter of days, sellers ruled the roost.

    Now buyers have a distinct advantage in most regional markets areas..

    This is the way of markets.

  10. Greg,

    I still think it is every buyer’s right to know how long a property is on market. I don’t understand Leanne’s position that it shouldn’t be revealed because it may hurt the seller for the buyer to know the truth.

    I think it is just the difference between agent-centric and consumer-centric speak…again.

    From the agent’s standpoint it is a “new listing” for them. Hence Leanne’s feeling that it is “a new listing” and not on market yesterday (with them as the agent).

    From the consumer’s standpoint, they don’t give a RA who the listing agent is and how long THIS agent has had the listing, or WHY it’s been on the market so long. They want to know how many days it is, hear all fo the “excuses” as to why it’s been on market so long, and come to their own conclusion.

    The advantage for the buyer should always be having all of the relevant and truthful facts. Agents deciding which facts the buyer should have or shoudn’t have…well let’s just say those days are OVER.

    What do you say to sellers who ask, “Can I cancel and relist this as “new”? I’m sure you get that question as often as I do. Why are they thinking they can be “new on market”? I’ve never quite figured that out. It’s like asking “Can you please lie to the buyer to make the situation look better than it actually is?” 🙂

  11. I don’t quite understand why the general public knowing CDOM is such a big deal. Seems to me a sellers best friend is a neighbor who has a house with a long CDOM.
    I’m thinking of a nice neighborhood of newer homes in the north end between Shoreline and Edmonds: There is a home that has been on the market for some 260 days (and on craigslist before that). Started at $1.400 on craigslist and then hit the market at $1.440, over the course of almost 10 months they finally come down to 1.299 and the house two doors down (exact same floorplan, but bigger lot/yard) hits the market for $1.272 and goes Active STI in 4 days. Looked like a bargain compared to the neighbor on the lousy lot, even though the house has nicer granite…
    I can only imagine what the sellers of the first house are thinking!! And then they lowered their house by $14k. Gee, not gonna getter done with that lame reduction now that everyone in that market has seen it and seen it, as they go in and out of that neighborhood looking at the other 10 houses now for sale.
    Oddly enough they started out with hated MLS for owners when that expired they went with a regular agent who upped the price by 40k. Strange… why? Didn’t sell for 1.399 so you relist it for 40k? Is it because agents working for a “Full Service” agency feel that other agents would have not shown this home when it was listed my mlsforowners? Probably…

    If and agent doesn’t want to come in as a second agent and put up with “tough marketing”, pass on the listing. There are pleanty of agents would would be wililng to take it on because you STILL get paid when it sells. If it’s 2 days or 2 years, you still get paid.

  12. Hi Chris,

    Your example of the house being listed the second time for 40k more shows an unrealistic seller who is adament to net a certain amount, and who ends up losing in the long run.

    The second agent may have thought to try for “gold ring” perhaps with better marketing to make sure more potential buyers saw the property, and who also expected the seller to be willing to lower the listed price to more a more realistic market price after a reasonable time. But it looks like the seller is chasing the market down and has lost the race since the other property was listed and went STI in four days at $1,272,000.

    They had better reduce the list price to something very, very close to that other houses’ list before it closes, or they may be sorrier still when the actual selling price is recorded.

  13. Pingback: Matt Goyer’s Real Estate Blog » Blog Archive » NWMLS To Release More Data

  14. Ardell,
    “I still think it is every buyer’s right to know how long a property is on market. ”

    Agreed. This is vital information for the buyer.

    “What do you say to sellers who ask, “Can I cancel and relist this as “new

  15. I think that’s great that they are allowing this information to be publicly displayed. Buyers often ask this question, and of course I am happy to provide this information.

    I think it’s a good piece of information to know because it might effect the way that you would approach a negotiation. Generally speaking, a home that is just listed is less likely to consider a substantially lower offer than a home that’s been on the market for months – all other things being equal.

  16. Good its about time. I just wish our local mls wasn’t such a Grinch. We cant even display address with our idx, and some wonder why zillow is taking over the search world.

Leave a Reply