Real Estate Round-Up: Coming soon

Picture this. You’re driving along and you see a real estate sign on your neighbor’s home, or in a neighborhood, you want to move to. You pull to the side of the road, get on the internet on your phone to search for information about it, and you find nothing, nada, zilch.

It makes no sense. There’s a sign up, with a topper that says, “Coming soon,” but you can’t find it on any of the real estate sites you normally search.

Next, you call your Realtor and ask them about the home. Your Realtor goes to the multiple listing service and finds nothing. They then, just like you, search on the various internet syndicated search sites and find absolutely nothing on the property. Sounds crazy, right?

In a profession where our job is to actually sell the homes we list, a sign has been posted announcing that the property is for sale, but other than calling the number on the sign, there is no way to find any information about the property.

I guess that Realtor is just hoping that the perfect buyer for that property is going to just happen to drive by. Or maybe, they believe that within their personal database or their company’s database, the perfect buyer is waiting to get a call about this great property. What are the chances of this happening?

And even if the perfect match did appear through either of those contact streams, where is the competition that comes into play when many buyers could be aware of the property and write an offer on the property? It doesn’t exist.

I remember driving by a home near where I live that had a “coming soon” sign on it for six months. I kept expecting that it would eventually be listed on the multiple listing service, but no such luck. If I had a client for the home, I would have pursued it, but since I didn’t, I let it ride, literally day after day, week after week, month after month, as “coming soon.”

Eventually the sign came down and, it was clear, rehabbing was being done to the property, and it never actually “came” on the market.

Who loses? The seller for sure, but also the buyers who don’t get an opportunity to buy this property.

What’s the good news.? The rules have been changed regarding this type of marketing, effective Jan. 1, 2020. Multiple listing services across the country have until May 1 to provide a status update, so that every property that is advertised as “coming soon” will be available on the multiple listing service and the syndicated sites the listing broker chooses to include in the data, within one day of that public posting.

So, the listing broker will have to provide the listing information to the multiple listing service, and the applicable syndicated search sites, whenever a sign is posted at the property or when any public advertising is run that pertains to the property, so that everyone else can be aware of the property.

This change is not only good for buyers and Realtors who work specifically with buyers, but also for sellers and Realtors who work specifically with sellers. Buyers will be able to find out about property in areas they are interested, just a day after any public promotion or marketing occurs. In a marketplace that has a shortage of inventory, like our current market, it is a very big deal to buyers.

And for sellers, it gives their property exposure to every buyer that is looking for a property like theirs. More exposure means more opportunity and greater success with selling the property. Realtors will have accurate data to share with their clients regarding the local “comps” in the area. This change will benefit sellers, buyers and Realtors alike.

The next time anyone tries to tell you how much better it is to privately market your home to their personal or company database, ask yourself if you would rather fish from a very small backyard pond, or the very large lake it’s connected to.

Come May 1, thankfully, the wise decision will be made for you, because every property deserves full exposure and opportunity. Happy selling!

Kim Murphy can be reached at [email protected] or (760) 415-9292 or at 130 N. Main Ave., in Fallbrook. Her broker license is #01229921, and she is on the board of directors for the California Association of Realtors.