“New Listing!” Really?

Somewhere on Padaro Lane in Southern Santa Barbara

What could be more disappointing than to discover a “new listing” for an area you’ve been frantically looking in and then find out it’s not new? Happens all the time, right?

A popular ruse for marketing homes that aren’t selling is relisting them to give the appearance that it’s a “new listing.”  Everybody loves new listings! But, sometimes the homeowner decides to reduce their asking price and wonders what can they do to get more attention. Relist it as a new listing.

There are a Board of Realtors and MLS systems that are on top of this and have rules in place so the MLS data cannot be manipulated and abused. Most Multiple Listing Systems have what’s called Cumulative Days on the Market. This reflects the current listings DOM (Days on the market) for the current listing and previous DOMs for that property. The relist ruse tries to gin the system towards buyers, agents, and third-party platforms like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com. Basically, this ruse confuses and frustrates prospective homebuyers that are looking for new listings.

Nowadays buyers are savvier than ever and want to know the “MLS History” of the property, something that right now is not always that easy to find online. More often than not you need to ask a real estate professional to go on their MLS to discover what the property’s MLS history really is.

Where this innocently occurs when the owner of a property relists with another real estate professional. The new agent lists the property – and for them – it is a new listing even though the property had been listed previously on the MLS with someone else.