The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) recently announced a new MLS Policy known as “Multiple Listing Options for Sellers” to expand choice for consumers as it relates to Clear Cooperation. The policy is aimed at making additional marketing choices for consumers while preserving equal access to property information on the MLS.
The announcement has brought up questions about how the new policy will affect the business and workflow of SFARMLS members as properties are listed and marketed within the MLS and on third-party websites.
I’d like to take a moment to explain SFAR’s plan on how this policy will be implemented locally to help alleviate any concerns you may have and clear up any misinformation you may have heard.
We have some good news for SFAR members.
Since 2015 members of SFARMLS have had tools and systems at their disposal that very closely align with NAR’s new Delayed Marketing Listing (DML) rules for handling Multiple Listing Options for Sellers. Our currently implemented Coming Soon status checks all of the boxes that NAR is asking for and honors the Association’s core values of providing a marketplace for buying and selling homes that promotes fair housing and transparency for all.
What Is Coming Soon?
Coming Soon, in place since mid-2018, is a status within the SFARMLS system that members can use to input their listings for pre-marketing, however they wish, inside or outside of the MLS. These are treated as off-market listings and don’t appear on public marketing websites or applications.
How Does Coming Soon Work?
When an agent inputs the listing into the MLS and sets the status as Coming Soon the listing does not leave the MLS eco-system for a period of time. That period of time is determined by the seller and YOU, their agent, by setting an appropriate on-market date at any point in the future (not to exceed your listing agreement expiration date).
Coming Soon data is only available in the MLS systems (Rapattoni and Zenlist). We share Coming Soon with reciprocal MLSs that have a compatible status, the complete list of which is: BAREIS, Contra Costa, Bay East, bridgeMLS and MLSListings.
Coming Soon listings do NOT accrue days on market.
When the listing does go “on the market” it is then distributed to all appropriate licensed sites and applications through IDX and syndication feeds to portals.
Coming Soon Performance
SFAR has historical data and analysis of Coming Soon performance going back to January 2019 showing how Coming Soon listings go through the normal lifecycle after starting in that status. We published this article in 2022 on our Solution Center where we showed that the Coming Soon status is effective at balancing the needs of brokerages to pre-market and complete market of all homes available.
Questions + Answers
Q: Will putting my listing into SFARMLS as Coming Soon adversely affect it on Zillow later?
A: No. While your listing is in the Coming Soon status, it will not (currently) go to Zillow. As the systems are set up today, your listings WILL go to Zillow, but only once the listing’s status is set to Active Status (On-Market) and the flag for distribution “Internet Yes/No” is set to YES.
We are planning to publish a follow up paper that will feature all of our supporting data and conclusions later in the month.
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