March 13, 2020
PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH YOUR REAL ESTATE COLLEAGUES
Dear Members:
We would like to remind agents–as we did with open houses–that there are some best practices and alternatives that apply to Broker Tour as well as any other kind of showings or opens. We can take steps to minimize the risks to ourselves and others. Again, this is something you should discuss with your clients/sellers as well as your office managers and brokers.
Please read our considerations for open houses this weekend via this link:
CONSIDERATIONS FOR OPEN HOUSES THIS WEEKEND
Additionally, here are two updates as of today from the City of San Francisco:
- The Health Officer of San Francisco issued a Public Health Order prohibiting all non-essential events of 100 or more persons. You can follow the City of San Francisco's Preparations and Response to COVID-19 (ongoing) here.
- Mayor London Breed announced a moratorium on evictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please read the details here.
In response to members' questions regarding taking listings off the market temporarily:
The SFARMLS team tries its best to accommodate and to execute policies and procedures that benefit our members. As responses to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) increase and evolve, we see this may have a negative impact on property listings with regard to “days on market” (DOM).
With that in mind, starting today (and retroactive to any listing moved to status HOLD going back to Monday, March 9, 2020) we will make the following temporary changes to our rules:
- If you placed your listing on Hold status on or after Monday, March 9, 2020 (where the listing contract is still valid, but the property is not being actively marketed) so it does not accrue DOM, we will allow you to email us a request to have that listing marked as “new” once the listing has been changed back to any Active status. Please note that the “new” status will not change, or zero-out, or “reset” DOM. Using Hold will stop DOM from incrementing. Also, please be aware that placing a listing on Hold will not stop all third-party sites–such as Zillow, Redfin, etc.–from incrementing their days count on listings that they have already received, as many these sites and portals calculate “days on site” according to their own systems. We have no control over that.
- We will allow agents to temporarily add comments to their Open Houses (or Tour) comment fields with links to Virtual Tour/Virtual Walk-through products, as such measures will help limit exposure for both agents and clients.
Once the alarm has passed, we reserve the right to go back through the historical data and remove these links. Some third-party sites may strip out links from Open House or Tour comment fields, and again, we have no control over that. Consider also making sure to use the standard practice of using the Virtual Media links from the Revise Listing page.
For example:
Due to the uncertainty surrounding the current climate, these changes will stay in effect until otherwise stated. We may also take further action as the situation evolves.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding these changes, or anything MLS related, please contact the SFARMLS department at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Please note that while phone support is still available, we are experiencing an increasing volume of inquiries so email is a better channel to ensure a timely response.
Thank you.
