Days of Cheating on MLS at least in the Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer County are Coming to an end.
Recently, I read Here we go again! DOM - CDOM - Leased & Ative? What the heck?!? by Laurie Manny and was disheartened that we still have those agents who will reduce their integrity in the name of selling a listing.
What these agents don't realize isthey would still sell by being transparent. This generation is beyond being fooled by the shenanigans of a agent who is looking for a way around the system.
Well, I left my comment for Laurie on her post and went on about my business.
Yesterday, I drove by a house that is one of 7 homes I will be showing my home buyers on Sunday. I happen to call the Seller and ask about the school in the area along with some other questions, I had.
Last night my home buyers emailed me and asked if they could see two new listings of homes they found.
When I pulled up the listings, I noticed that both of them happen to be on our list of homes to view. But, there was something puzzling...one of them was withdrawn/cancelled.
After careful scrutiny, it happened to be the one that I spoke to the Seller about the school and she never mentioned that the house would be off the market when I told her I would be showing her home on Sunday. hmm
I called the Seller and left a message asking if she was re-listing the house. Seems normal enough.
Then I called the Listing Agent when I didn't hear back from the Seller. The Listing agent laughed and said that he withdrew/cancelled the listing and would be putting it back on today. That way the days on the market would start at day 1. When I indicated that this was not legal, he said that he had a new listing agreement with the Seller (which would make it legal).
Well, low and behold, the Seller called and was shocked since my phone call was the second call she had received about her withdrawn/cancelled listing. She didn't know why this had happened and would be calling her agent. Something tells me that she didn't resign another listing agreement as the agent so indicated.
This Spring, hopefully Days on the Market will really mean Days on the Market since the Sacramento MLS system will be switching over to Cumulative Days on the Market. So, days on the market will be reflected correctly.
The photo above for those that are not familiar with the Sacramento MLS system, shows a partial listing (with identifying information blocked out). Property History is an area that agents can click on that shows every time the house address has been listed with links to each of the MLS listings for that house.
When I say that we really need to be aware that our clients, the home buyers are smarter than the average bear I mean it.
My clients look at the listing date so they know how long the listing has been on MLS and now with the Cumulative Days on the Market, new MLS #'s will not help to start back at Day #1, cheating will not be in anyone's best interest.
I write this to help new agents realize that they shouldn't try to figure out a way around the system, go with the system, be transparent. No one likes to be made a fool of and home buyers are smarter than the average bear!
The more we do the "right" thing, the better the word, agent and Realtor will be to the public.
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Sacramento Real Estate serving Home Buyers & Sellers in Elk Grove, CA, Folsom, Roseville,, Granite Bay ,Placer County, El Dorado Hills, West Sacramento, love 1st Time Home buyers, too. (916) 417-2699
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Gena - I am surprised that you guys out is CA are still dealing with an archaic MLS system. The MLS was changed in Massachusetts almost two years ago to prevent agents from relisting and setting the clock back to zero. Just as in California it was a common practice for agents here to be able to deceive the public. They put a stop to it and now it is a far better MLS.
Gena, this past summer our MLS started using cumulative DOM and a lot of agents and builders were upset. Oh, well...
I think it makes it a more legit MLS and I wish they had done it much sooner.
Gena -we don't have the cumulative DOM. Not doing the right thing makes the job of marketing homes more difficult for all, including providing reliable statistics for buyers and sellers.
This practice is so ridiculous. It does nothing but make real estate agents look bad. I am glad to see the move to cumulative days on market!
I've seen some people do that here. that is funny that the Realtor basically lied to you about it when you told her it was illegal. Some people, I just don't get their thinking sometimes...
Gena: I'm checking into this for my state. I have seen this done by agents many times but I had no idea it was illegal. I am wondering if the validity varies from state to state. I appreciate your post because it has enlightened me and I can't wait to see what my broker has to say.
Bill, glad to hear that you have managed to get that straightened out with your MLS. There are times, few and far between when the courts want a listing taken off the market and then a very short time later when things have been worked out that the listing is placed back on...but those are few and far between. In the meantime DOM mean nothing here since there are those that abuse the system.
A couple of years ago the MLS made a ruling that if you took a listing off, it remained off for 7 days. This seemed to detour agents from playing the roulette with the DOM. However, that ruling was changed to read that as long as the agent had a new listings contract and a withdrawn addendum, they could place the listing back on.
As in any system, unless there is someone who squeals on the agent, nothing is done and even if one were to report this act, I can't think of any Seller who wouldn't quickly sign a new listing and a withdrawn addendum. So, it really is quite feudal at this point.
Let's hope that with the Cumulative Days on the Market that debuts in the Spring, this will be enough to detour this questionable practice.
Linda, I think it would be a good thing since right now our DOM really don't mean anything. In order to find out about a property one has go through hoops in order to find out the actual days on the market. And yet, the DOM are published but for the most part are totally inaccurate.
Good for your State in constituting this program. I look forward to Sacramento doing the same.
Faina,couldn't agree with you more. In fact, jus this evening I received a call from a new home buyer moving here from the LA area and he asked what the average DOM were for our area. It's damn hard to give that information out when you know that what we are all working with is incorrect information.
Can't wait until the spring when hopefully, DOM really will mean something.
Ginger, I know that a Listing agent would simply say that they are doing everything in their power to help sell the Seller's house. Sometimes, it seems as though they actually believe that being deceptive is just part of the selling job.
However, it really does end up hurting all of us and shows that frankly we don't have very good values with we can make excuses to deceive.
To be honest, it seems ridiculous since the "property history" link is available on all listings so that the agent can see the actual days on the market as well as how many times the house has been listed.
I hope that as a professional we all start taking a good look at how we do business and stop trying to deceive the public.
For the most part there are good Realtors who do an honest days work and do it the right way...just a few bad apples in the group.
Rick, well it's not illegal if you have your Seller sign a withdrawn/cancel and then have them resign another new listing. But, like you said, he knew he was lying and didn't have those papers but I'm sure his Seller would be more than happy to sign some.
He was a man whose been in the business for 20 years (so he said) and I guess he has figured out ways around the system...there will always be those that think it's smart, or that they are above the rules and we as a group must let them know that it is not acceptable.
Our reputation as Realtors should count for something and we are the only ones that can change it.
Donna, it varies from MLS to MLS and can vary within the State as well as the Counties. It is a good idea to check with your Broker so that you know what your MLS ruling is for DOM and if you can remove a listing and put it back up freely.
Just remember to do the right thing and be honest.
Hi Gena - In order for a listing to show up as new in MA with the days on market back to 0, it has to have been off the market for 91 days. The board made the decision that anything less than that could be an indication that the intent for taking it off the market was to manipulate the data. The feeling is that if you have your home off the market for 3 months, it is a different time period.
Once the change is made your data will be much better :)
Bill, that sounds like a winner with the exception of court orders, in my opinion but your MLS may have that already in place. I would think there would be very few exceptions.
I'm looking forward to the change so that our data actually means something.
Thanks for your input and letting all of us know what different rulings their are around your neck of the woods.
The Cumulative days count is much smarter. We started up with that quite a while ago. And there is a Property History link that shows us exactly the changes in the listing history of this property- every price change, agent change, status change, etc. No more ambiguity.
Interestingly... I don't really use Market Time as much in my CMAs anymore. But I think that is more a function of the market than the change to how we report market time.
Gena - We here in NH have had the accumulative DOM for at least a year now so this problem has been resolved. It makes no sense to hide the facts as we owe fair and honest treatment to all.
Sarah, can't wait until we implement it. There are many reports out there that continually refer to DOM and I just shake my head.
Judy, amen to that. Just like Bill said, I am shocked that we Californians weren't the first...better late than never.