We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with some great brokerage organizations from time to time. This summer, the Broker Resource Network (BRN) asked us if we would be interested in writing a report about an alarming trend related to days on market.
Days on market is a calculation between the date and time a listing is marked active in an MLS vs. the date the status changes to sold. When the time on market is less than 24 hours, that is called Zero Days On Market. Another term commonly used is a comp(arison) only listing; these are listings being entered into the MLS so a record of the transaction will be there for statistical purposes – which include reflecting unit volume, dollar volume, and creating a historical price and date of sale.
The real estate industry has been working hard to tackle the very difficult issue of pocket listings or off-market listings. On May 1st, 2019 the nation’s REALTOR® affiliated MLSs adopted the Clear Cooperation Policy. The aim of this policy was to eliminate pocket listings by compelling brokers to put all listings in the MLS. This year, firms subscribed to the BRN agreed to collaborate to study the impact of Clear Cooperation. The assumption was that Clear Cooperation should result in fewer listings being entered as comp only listings.
The brokers pulled a year of listing data before clear cooperation was implemented and compared it to the year that followed. In market after market, the data demonstrated that the number of listings processed by the MLS with Zero Days on Market went up dramatically. This dramatic increase happened across all 24 markets reviewed.
For the first time, the BRN is allowing non-brokers to access their research. They are inviting an industry to have a conversation about this issue. As an industry, it is important for agents to gain access to information and training about the value of the MLS.
WAV Group would like to thank the brokers of the BRN for the opportunity to pin their story. If you are interested in reading the paper, “The Quiet Threat of Zero Days on Market”, it is downloadable for free on the BRN website. If you find value in this type of research and want to collaborate with other brokers, then the BRN is a network open to all brokers of all sizes and brands. WAV Group encourages brokers to join.
Just an observation as a Managing Broker – because of the briskness of the market the last 2 years, many brokers are seeking out owners who are willing to sell their properties directly to the Buyers. This is not a pocket listing, this is a hardworking real estate agent out there pounding the pavement looking for something for their Buyers to buy that might not be in a multiple-offer situation. They are getting one-party listings in an attempt to actually get their Buyer clients a property when they have been outbid multiple times. I truly believe that that is why this number has increased exponentially, not because more people are keeping their listings out of the MLS when they have an actual listing.
True.
I think there were listings in their back office program that were not in the MLS, because the numbers are not correct for my MLS. I have not checked each office, but a quick spot check of one office shows 3 and 11 in the report, and 0 and 0 in MLS. Another office shows 17 and 20 in the report, but 1 and 3 in MLS.