Tag: Pocket listings

Happy Thanksgiving! Here Are Some Things That We’re Grateful for This Year  

2021 has been a difficult year for everyone, but it has also been a year of growth for Golden Real Estate and for me personally. Fortunately, Rita and I have escaped infection by Covid-19. We are all fully vaccinated, and Rita and I plus a couple broker associates have received our booster shots.

We’ll be closing out 2021 with over $50 million in closed sales volume, compared to less than $32 million in 2020.

So we have a lot to be thankful for at Golden Real Estate, most especially the patronage of buyers and sellers who chose us to serve their real estate needs.    I know for a fact that many of this year’s clients chose us not only because of the real estate reputation we have built through this weekly column but also because of the political stands I have taken regarding our former president and his followers. We gained far more clients than we lost because of my political writing.

And we are not alone politically. While fellow agents and brokerages have not spoken out as we have for fear of losing clients, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has taken some courageous stands demonstrating alignment with our own values. For example, last fall the incoming president of NAR apologized for the past policies of the association which reinforced systemic racism, such as redlining and steering buyers to minority areas instead of showing them all listings they were financially qualified to buy. I’m grateful for the attention paid by NAR to social justice issues, but also for its effort, albeit unsuccessful so far, to eliminate the practice of off-MLS (“pocket”) listings.

I’m also grateful for the progress being made by REcolorado, Denver’s MLS. I have seen this progress from the inside as a member of the Rules & Regulations Committee as well as from being a user of REcolorado’s services. I appreciate REcolorado for adopting some of my suggestions, such as creating a field for closing notes.

At the top of my gratitude list is the fact that we were able to rent a storefront in downtown Golden. In early December, Golden Real Estate will be moving to 1214 Washington Avenue, the former location of Laurel Property Services. We look forward to benefiting from the pedestrian traffic of that prime location. We have ordered a WindoVision unit from TouchPoint Systems to capitalize on that traffic. Below is an artist’s rendering of it installed in our storefront. It allows passersby to search the MLS live using a through-the-window touch screen.

What’s really exciting about our move to downtown Golden is what it allows us to do with our current building on South Golden Road. As you know by now, we are a showplace of “net zero energy,” so I am partnering with broker associate Ty Scrable, who is super-committed and knowledgeable about sustainability, to create a new business we are calling The Net Zero Store. Our goal is to bring under one roof and into one showroom the various products and services that allow homeowners and businesses to “go net zero.”

Ty and I will be presenting our plans for this new venture at the Nov. 30th, 7pm, meeting of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society at the Jefferson Unitarian Church, 14350 W. 32nd Ave.  Here’s a link if you’d like to attend.

The MLS’s Campaign Against ‘Pocket Listings’ Is Serious, With $1,500 Penalties

Last November, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) board of directors voted into existence a “Clear Cooperation Policy” (see below). The rule required all MLSs in the country to implement the policy by May 1st of 2021. Although there were some technical delays, the rule is in full force now and our MLS, REcolorado, is enforcing it with substantial fines for violations. (I know because I’m on the Rules & Regulations Committee.) Many MLS members have already received fines starting at $1,500, with only one warning notice given.

The rule basically says that there can be no advertising of any kind for a listing without making the listing active on the MLS so that all members of the MLS have the opportunity to show and sell it.  If a “for sale” sign is put on a listing or there is a social media ad for it, or any other kind of public promotion of the listing, the agent must put it on the MLS within one business day. Currently that means that if the sign or advertising appears in the morning, it must be on the MLS by 6:30 pm the same day.  If it is promoted in the afternoon, it should be on the MLS the following morning.

A listing can be listed on the MLS as “Coming Soon,” but that means no showing by anyone including the listing agent. Once a showing takes place, it must be changed to “Active” immediately, making it available to other MLS members. Also, if it’s “Coming Soon” on the MLS, there must be a Coming Soon sign rider on the yard sign.

Most NAR rules only apply to NAR members (aka “Realtors”), but since NAR requires all MLSs to implement the rule, it does apply to the thousands of agents who do not belong to a Realtor brokerage. 

The policy was intended to reduce the number of “pocket listings.” A pocket listing is one which an agent withholds from the MLS (i.e., keeps in his pocket) in hopes of selling it himself or herself and thereby not sharing the commission with another agent.

With such stringent enforcement of the rule — other MLS violations carry penalties as small as $25 — you’d think there would be a widespread shift away from agents selling their listings before they are shared on the MLS. 

To see if that was the case, I did some analysis of my own, counting the number of closings entered on REcolorado showing zero days on the MLS. I fully expected to see a drop in the number of such closings.

The first day that a listing is on the MLS, it is shown as 0 days in the MLS. If it is changed to pending (or closed) the same day, one can assume that the listing was not active on the MLS long enough for other agents to set a showing and submit an offer.

Much to my surprise, the number of homes listed as closed with zero days on the MLS has only increased over the last 24 months, as shown by the chart below. In fact, the highest number of such closings has occurred since the rule went into effect.

So what gives? This harsh penalty does not appear to be having the desired effect, but maybe some more publicity about it will create more awareness and more compliance. Agents can be suspended from membership in the MLS after enough violations, basically putting them out of business.

After three violations within the same brokerage, the brokerage itself starts getting penalized, with the fine starting at $5,000, so that should certainly increase the in-house training about the rule. I have made sure that my own broker associates are aware of the rule.

Homeowners can, of course, make their own private deals with a buyer and then call upon an agent to handle the paperwork, which is fine, since there’s no advertising or promotion of the listing by the agent.

Also, there’s a “brokerage exclusion” which allows an agent in a large brokerage to tell other agents within that brokerage about the listing, but that cannot include posting it on social media where other buyers could learn about it. These two work-arounds could explain many of the homes contributing to the chart’s high numbers.

Why Is It Called ‘Clear Cooperation Policy’?

The real estate industry is unlike any other industry I know. Through our many Multi-List Services or MLSs, we members agree to “cooperation and compensation.” In other words, each member agrees to share his/her listings with every other member, allowing them to sell that listing to a buyer, and to be compensated by the listing agent by an amount displayed on the MLS.

I like to compare our industry to the new car business. Imagine if you went to a Chevy dealer and described the kind of car you wanted, and the salesman said, “I think the Ford Explorer would be perfect for you.” The salesman takes you to the Ford dealer, gets the keys, and then joins you on a test drive. If you like it, the salesman writes up the contract and presents it to a Ford salesman, who then gives the Chevy salesman half his commission (which the Chevy salesman then splits with his dealership).

That’s how it works in real estate. The commission earned by a buyer’s agent (who is the selling agent)  is called the co-op commission, short for cooperation.

The MLSs have rules requiring a member to put all their listings on the MLS, typically within 3 business days.  NAR’s “Clear Cooperation Policy” tightens that rule to say that any agent who promotes a listing to prospective buyers in any way (including with a sign in the yard or a social media post) must put the listing on the MLS within one business day.

The NAR policy — now an MLS rule — was instigated by members upset that other members were withholding their listings from the MLS until they were sold, further frustrating both the agents and their buyers looking for homes to buy at a time of especially low inventory.

How Listing Agents Handle Bidding Wars: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I have written in the past about how we handle multiple offers and bidding wars on our listings using an auction style, which we feel is best for our sellers and most fair to buyers and their agents.

Regrettably, very few listing agents handle multiple offers and bidding wars the way we do. Most are sticking with the “highest and best” approach, in which buyers submit an above-listing-price offer without knowing what other buyers are offering.

Usually agents maintain that their sellers won’t let them reveal the competing offers, but I find that hard to believe. Have they even had an honest discussion with their sellers about that? I have that discussion with every seller who hires me and invariably they agree that full transparency about offers in hand is not only going to net them the highest price for their home but is also fairest to the buyers.

I have written in the past that 4 days on the MLS before going under contract is the “sweet spot” when it comes to netting the best price for sellers, and I have supported that opinion statistically.

However, recently we have modified our policy because of more buyers submitting early offers which are too good to pass up. Do we keep our word not to sell before the 4th day, or take the offer?

Rule #1 is that the seller makes that decision, not us. If the seller wants to accept a particularly sweet offer on day one or day two, we ask for 24 hours’ lead time so that we can notify all other agents who have set showings that our timeline has changed. “We have this great offer, and the seller wants to accept it.” That gives those agents time to accelerate their timeline and compete (or not) with that particularly sweet offer.

Regardless of how an agent handles multiple offers, professional courtesy demands that they communicate with other agents and not just ignore the competing offers. Just call us and say, “My seller has decided to go with a better offer.” Give us a chance to recalibrate and resubmit. That’s best for your seller (to whom you owe “utmost good faith and fidelity”), and it’s only fair to the other bidders.

Sometime soon these bidding wars will subside, and we’ll go back to having a “balanced” market. I’d settle, frankly, for a seller’s market that is not crazy wild!

We are still seeing way too many homes that are selling with zero days on the market, often because the listing agent convinced the seller to accept a contract obtained by the listing agent, thereby allowing the listing agent to keep his or her entire commission instead of sharing it with a buyer’s agent.

The Colorado Real Estate Commission frowns upon this practice and has issued guidance that every listing agent should advise their sellers that they may be leaving money on the table (that is, getting less than they might for their home) if they don’t allow the home to be on the MLS for at least a few days so that all interested buyers have a chance to see it and make an offer.

Along that vein, the National Association of Realtors last November adopted a “Clear Cooperation Policy,” making it a violation to have “pocket listings” not on the MLS so agents can see and show it. On our MLS that carries a $1,500 fine.

NAR’s ‘Clear Cooperation’ Policy Is a First Step at Eliminating Pocket Listings

A “pocket listing” is a property which the listing agent does not put on the MLS, hoping to sell it himself or get it sold by other agents in his office. It’s not typically in the best interest of the seller, since the property is withheld from the full universe of potential buyers.

The organizing principle of the Multi-List System, or MLS, is “cooperation and compensation.” Every real estate agent working in the public arena needs to belong to the local MLS, because it’s only through the MLS that the agent can show and sell that MLS’s listings and be guaranteed the “co-op” commission displayed on the MLS.

A listing agent, naturally, would prefer not to give a big slice of the listing commission to the “cooperat-ing” broker who brings the buyer. He or she would much rather sell the listing, keeping the entire commission for him or herself. Meanwhile, other agents (and their buyers) are upset when they don’t have the opportunity to show a new listing and submit an offer, especially when there are so few listings on the market, as is currently the case.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) took up the issue of pocket listings last year when it adopted a policy called Clear Cooperation. Essentially the policy says that if an MLS member advertises or promotes a listing in any way — including putting a “coming soon” sign in the yard or mentioning it on social media — that listing must be entered on the MLS within 24 hours. It can be listed as “coming soon” on the MLS, during which time it can’t be shown, including by the listing agent. Once it is shown, it must immediately be changed to “active,” allowing all MLS members to show and sell it.

Unfortunately for sellers, who are the big losers with pocket listings, this policy will never be completely effective. That is evident from the fact that over 7% of listings, by my count, are entered on the MLS only after they are sold. Unless a home remains active on the MLS for 3 or 4 days, it’s unlikely that all potential buyers will have had a chance to compete for it.

You may recall the featured listing in last week’s column. It was listed at $375,000, a price consistent with comparable sales, and we received a full-price offer on the first day. Our policy, however, is to get our sellers to wait four days before going under contract. We had 30 showings and received six offers by day four. By being transparent about the offers received, we were able to bid up the property by  more than $55,000 by day four. We did get an offer $35,000 over listing price on day two, but we waited. Our seller benefited from waiting 2 more days.

Sadly, most listing agents haven’t adopted this practice. They sell their listings too quickly, potentially costing their sellers thousands but also frustrating would-be buyers who might pay more. 

I have calculated that in addition to the 7% of listings being sold with zero days on the MLS, 15% are sold after only 1 or 2 days on the MLS.

One technique for minimizing showings by other agents has been to make a listing “active” but block showings with the showing service. Because the listing is “active,” the listing agent can show the property him or herself without technically violating the clear cooperation policy.

Another technique is the “office exclusive” option.  A listing can be marketed within a brokerage without putting it on the MLS. But once any kind of public marketing takes place, the listing must immediately be put on the MLS as either “coming soon” or “active.”

National Association of Realtors (NAR) Bans Pocket Listings

During its annual convention earlier this month, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) voted to ban the practice of pocket listings. Pocket listings are listings which are withheld from the MLS, thereby denying other Realtors (and agents who are not Realtors) from showing and selling the listings. The rule goes into effect on January 1, 2020, but NAR is giving MLSs until May 1st to fully implement it.

Regular readers of this column know that I have long decried the practice of selling listings without putting them on the MLS. Doing so increases the chances of the listing agent “double-ending” the sale, resulting in twice the commission, but it also runs the risk of netting less money for the seller, thereby violating the ethical and legal requirement that listing agents work in the best interest of their sellers instead of themselves.

Perhaps you saw me quoted on page 10A of last Thursday’s Denver Post as welcoming this new rule. As I stated to reporter Aldo Svaldi, the only way to guarantee the highest price for our sellers is to expose their listings to the full market of potential buyers, which is only done by putting the home on the MLS. When the listing agent convinces a seller to accept an offer before their home is put on the MLS, there is no way of knowing how much money the seller will “leave on the table.”

The purpose of an MLS is to provide “cooperation and compensation.” Members of an MLS must allow (cooperate with) any other member of the MLS to sell their listing and makes it known how they’ll be compensated — in our market, typically 2.8% of the sale price.

The new policy, called “clear cooperation,” is spelled out in the following motion passed by a 91% to 9% vote of the NAR board of directors:

“Within one business day of marketing a property to the public, the listing broker must submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants. Public marketing includes, but is not limited to, flyers displayed in windows, yard signs, digital marketing on public-facing websites, brokerage website displays, digital communications marketing (email blasts), multi-brokerage listing sharing networks, and applications available to the general public.”

I can provide an example from my own practice. In November 2018 I listed a home for $1.1 million. Even before I put it on the MLS, a close friend of the seller said he would pay full price. The seller wanted to accept it, but my advice was to consider the friend’s offer the “opening bid” and to proceed with exposing the home to other buyers by putting it on the MLS.

Five days after putting the home on the MLS, bidding had driven up the price significantly and it sold (to the same friend) for $75,000 above full price. The seller was delighted, and so was the buyer, who only asked that his friend match the highest bid.

I could easily have made a quick commission and saved myself the chore and expense of marketing the home and managing competing offers, but I would have been violating my duty to the seller and, it turns out, cost my seller a lot of money.  I particularly like that, when all was said and done, the seller netted the full listing price, even after deducting commissions and the other costs of selling!

It will be interesting to see how this rule against pocket listings is implemented by MLSs and how effective it will be. One work-around we can expect is that listings will go on the MLS with the notation that “showings begin on such-and-such a (later) date.”

One of our broker associates, Chuck Brown, attended the NAR convention, including a panel of the titans of real estate — from Realogy, RE/MAX International, Zillow, Opendoor, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, and others — and they, unlike the board of directors, were mostly against the new policy on pocket listings.  Zillow and Opendoor, in particular, say they’ll continue to list properties as “coming soon.”

Clearly the new rule will restrict but probably not eliminate the practice.  REcolorado’s Rules & Regulations Committee, on which I have served for over a decade, will discuss it on Dec. 10th. Expect a follow-up on this subject!