Kim Mullan Blog
Changing Regulations Impacting the Real Estate Industry
January 11th 2024
Changing Regulations Impacting the Real Estate Industry
The real estate industry has new regulations impacting sellers’ options in 2024. One change is the use of “Exclusive Listings”. An exclusive listing is a property listing that is not on MLS and doesn’t come under MLS rules. Let me backtrack... Sellers used to have the option to post their listing to MLS and set a start date for showings and/or the time of offer presentation using a legal directive detailing rules agents had to follow. This ensured some exposure to the market prior to opening the door to viewings and offers. Reasonable exposure is important to ensure market value. That option was removed years ago because some agents were making exceptions to those rules for their own buyers or preferred colleagues. This was a breach of the legal directive intended to ensure a fair & transparent process. That was a reasonable concern that demanded remedy. For some in our industry there was added confusion around these legal directives as to what made them binding, the process to rescind the direction & how much notice the public & other agents be given prior to implementing the change in direction. There should have been industry clarity from the onset.
When the ability to pre-list on MLS was retracted it required that sellers had to make their homes available for showings as soon as they hit MLS. Realtors were able to bridge this gap using Exclusive listing agreements prior to MLS. This allowed for some pre-MLS marketing time while preparing your home for showings & offered buyers some insight into options that were coming to market through “coming soon” marketing on social media, websites, magazines & other hard print options. Exclusive listings are also used to protect agents by ensuring a commitment from the seller pre-MLS so the agent is prepared to invest time, money & resources during the preparation window. One of the resources sellers have frequently benefited from pre-MLS is prioritized access to an agent’s preferred contractors & trades who are often well-priced. For sellers needing to make improvements on short notice this is a huge asset & often utilized weeks in advance of the MLS listing.
The new regulations still allow for exclusive listings but won’t allow any “public facing” advertising earlier than 3 days prior to MLS activation. There will still be limited early exposure for agents of the listing brokerage or by way of direct messaging to individual realtors but it will be harder for the public to know what options are around the corner. No early social media, hard print advertising or early signage until the 3 day pre-MLS listing window. This means consumers will see less “coming soon” postings and signage. While this is not as beneficial as MLS listings that could hold off showing activity until a specified date or exclusive listings with coming soon marketing, it is still better to have some “in house” exposure with the listing brokerage than no pre-MLS presence at all.
The new regulations still allow for exclusive listings but won’t allow any “public facing” advertising earlier than 3 days prior to MLS activation. There will still be limited early exposure for agents of the listing brokerage or by way of direct messaging to individual realtors but it will be harder for the public to know what options are around the corner. No early social media, hard print advertising or early signage until the 3-day pre-MLS listing window. This means consumers will see less “coming soon” postings and signage. While this is not as beneficial as MLS listings that could hold off showing activity until a specified date or exclusive listings with coming soon marketing, it is still better to have some “in house” exposure with the listing brokerage than no pre-MLS presence at all.