Avoid these Late Listing Rules Violations Pitfalls

What are Incomplete Listings?

Often mistaken for “Withheld” (a listing status we’ll address more in a moment), an Incomplete listing is essentially an unpublished draft of your listing. While not live in Add/Edit, an Incomplete listing is assigned a listing number and is visible only to you, your broker and possibly others who manage listings for you in your office.

An Incomplete listing is available for 21 days after you create it. After that time, it is deleted from the system. If you approach the 21-day limit and are still not ready to go live, you can copy or clone the Incomplete listing and it will be assigned a new listing number and 21-day period. When the time comes to make the listing live in the MLS, you assign it a status, usually beginning as Coming Soon, Active, or Withheld.

When can Listings go Live on the MLS?

Listings must remain Incomplete and cannot be live with any status in the MLS system until you have a signed and active listing contract with your sellers. Active listing contracts must contain all required signatures and a contract start date.

Once a listing contract is signed the clock begins ticking to uphold this MLS rule:

All listings must be entered into the MLS, regardless of active, coming soon or withheld status, within two (2) business days of the listing contract start date or after all signatures are obtained, whichever is later.

No longer able to stay Incomplete, the listing must be live in Add/Edit with a status like Coming Soon, Active or Withheld. The MLS Rules system flags live listings with contract dates more than two days out unless they are first given a Withhold status, which requires a Withhold form signed by the sellers.

What Situations Drive Late Listings?

Here are two scenarios that commonly create Late Listings issues:

Missing Required Signatures

Say a listing contract shows the listing start date but does not yet have all the required signatures. The listing must stay Incomplete and cannot be live in the MLS until all parties have signed the listing contract.

Once you’ve obtained all the required signatures, you can enter the signature date from the listing contract into the List Date field of the Add/Edit listing form if it falls after the contract start date. If the contract start date is after all signatures are obtained, use the date of the last signature on your listing contract for the List Date field in your Add/Edit listing.

Has Signatures with a Future Contract Date

Sometimes sellers want to select a future listing contract date to have time to get the property ready for sale or accommodate other calendar obligations.

While you may have an Incomplete draft of the listing in Add/Edit, it must remain Incomplete until the listing contract start date, at which time you have two business days to give the listing a Withheld, Coming Soon or Active status in the MLS. The contract start date is what you use for the List Date field in your Add/Edit listing.

Again, only active listing contracts (with proper signatures and dates) can be in the MLS with statuses such as Active, Coming Soon and Withheld. Read this blog post for more details about how MLS listing statuses can work for clients who need time to get ready or want to pause their listings.

What are the Best Two Ways to Remember?

Two general rules to help avoid being flagged for an MLS Rules violation when creating MLS listings include:

• If your listing contract start date is on or after the signature date, use the contract start date in your MLS listing.
• If your signature date is after the contract start date, use the signature date in your MLS listing.

Still have Questions about Late Listings?

While this blog talks about how information in listing contracts is added to MLS listings, it should not be considered legal advice or direction/guidance for using listing contracts. Instead, please follow up with your broker for assistance.

The NorthstarMLS Rules + Regulations team is here to help with any questions you have about MLS listing compliance. We’ve compiled great information addressing important compliance topics including MLS Field Requirements, Photos, Virtual Tours, General Rule Policies, Rules Statistics and more! Check them out today at our Rules + Regulations page or contact us.