Playing the System
There’s an agent in my area who shall remain nameless. He’s a big, popular agent. He guarantees his listings will sell in 60 days or else. The else is the charming part… or else what?
Or else he’ll buy them personally? No.
Or else he’ll sell them without charging a commission? No.
Or else he’ll just re-list them again and again so it will appear it’s only been listed for 60 days? Bingo!
A friend of mine - before I became an agent myself - once said that she called him and learned that to list with him you were required to sign at least six listing forms. Each form was good for 30 to 60 days. When one listing date expired, his staff would re-input everything into the MLS thus creating a new MLS number. We’re not supposed to do this - it’s against the MLS rules… more specifically there’s supposed to be a 10-day rest period before a home listing shows back up as a new, active listing. Here’s what I found the other day on one home:
August 6, 2007 - 49 days
September 24, 2007 - 49 days
November 12, 2007 - 46 days
December 28, 2007 - 61 days
February 28, 2008 - 46 days
April 14, 2008 - 46 days
May 30, 2008 - 63 days
August 1, 2008 - 45 days
September 15, 2008 - 45 days
October 30, 2008 - 48 days
December 17, 2008 - 170 days (wrong picture)
June 5, 2009 - 119 days
I definitely sense a pattern that the agent is tired of the 45 days listings and is expanding them to three and four months! So this may be a boost for sellers - to give them optimal exposure because we agents do keep an eye on the hot sheets - to see what’s new on the market, what prices have come down, who’s withdrawn and expired. Yet it’s misleading to buyers UNLESS their agent performs due diligence and looks at the full history of the house. If I was the buyer’s agent, my thoughts would be that since it’s been on the market for 787 DAYS, they may be willing to negotiate. OR they probably are NOT willing to negotiate!
Maybe we should just call this Reason #29 to Interview and Hire a Professional Realtor to Represent Your Best Interests.




