Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Relisting the same old property

Here's a question for the realtors out there:

Is it legal to pull a house and relist it immediately? Is there a waiting period required?

Here's an example. This triplex in the SE was just re-listed as MLS #8007641. It has been on the market for over a year listed as #6019453, and obviously didn't sell.

I've seen this happen with a number of the properties I have looked at, and besides being dishonest, I just wonder if it's also illegal.

Anyone care to comment?

6 comments:

Kirk Coburn said...

That is a good question. I have noticed several homes that got re-listed with a MLS# that started with an 8 after the new year began. It can be deceptive. I heard that something "must change" before a new MLS number can be issued. Does that mean a new Realtor gets assigned? A change in price? Who knows.

Anonymous said...

This relisting stuff is one reason why it's difficult to trust the days-on-market and new listing by period stats. This goes on fairly frequently. I've been watching Portland real estate since last summer and see properties still listed, some that disappeared for a while and then turned up again.

Ian said...

I've also seen lots of cases where they change the price, and relist with a new number.

What some realtors don't realize is that I have been saving some listings on certain sites as a "favorite", and if they change the listing number I miss the price change.

Anyone else know the rules, or where we can check the rules?

Jody said...

I'm a Portland realtor. Sometimes a home will be re-listed because a different agent has taken the listing, or sometimes the listing expires (each listing agreement made with a seller has an expiration date on it and often-times the decision to keep the home on the market is made after the expiration date). However, there are those realtors who withdraw a listing and turn around a re-list it for the sole purpose of making it look "new" on the market. It is not illegal. There are no RMLS rules stopping an agent from re-listing a home.

Personally, I would NOT do this because it would be a pain for those folks watching the market (just like Ian mentioned). Even though public is not able to track the changes, realtors are. No matter how many times a particular home is listed we can see the history of the property several years back - who it was listed with, for how long and how much it was bought and sold for. So, the information is there, you just need to go through a real estate agent to get it.

I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but I hope it helps.

-Jody

DinOR said...

"It is not illegal"

Well if it isn't it certainly should be.

More and more the buying public suspects this is done to mask DOM. How is it that it's illegal to reset the odometer when you go to sell your car but perfectly acceptable to reset DOM when you're selling a house?

Further, playing a shell game w/ the DOM only reinforces the public's perception of realtors as "hoarding information" for their own benefit. Think of it as a "Freshness Date" for stale pricing. Guys, it's 2008, this has to stop.

Anonymous said...

you that bring the stink out of my shit hole. What an idiot to blog about something like this that has a very simple answer:

Yes, it is legal, and YES, if you know what the Fcuk you are looking at, it is CDOM: "combined days on market". This TELLS YOU the total, regardless of how many times you list it.

Nothing hidden here unless it is hidden behind the stpupidity of the article's author. I am equally surprised at all of you stinking corpses that have commented.

If you are going to talk about something, at least know what the fcku you are talking about.