When listings are marked closed within the MLS, we are able to capture information that is vital to more than just real estate professionals and their clients. For instance, during the Covid pandemic, SmartMLS was able to convince State legislators to designate real estate professionals as essential workers by providing relocation statistics gleaned from closing information entered on the MLS. This was a major factor in keeping the CT economy moving forward during and after the pandemic.
Unfortunately, we have found that some of the data that is entered when a listing is marked closed is incorrect and unreliable. In many instances, the optional fields on the form are left completely blank. This lack of reliable sales data is a disservice to the Connecticut real estate community and is detrimental to anyone relying on SmartMLS data for searches, reports, statistics, CMAs, industry trends, etc.
We have added the Collaborative Closing feature to our connectMLS system as an additional way of ensuring the data entered when a listing is marked closed on the MLS is timely, accurate and reliable.
With the introduction of the Collaborative Closing process, list agents can proactively mitigate potential compliance concerns by allowing buyer's agents to double check the sales data and provide crucial information that may be missing or incorrect. For instance, the list agent may not be certain about where the buyers are from or whether they are first-time homebuyers. Thankfully, this is information that buyer's agent will surely know. Instead of relying on information that is possibly just an educated guess, allowing the buyer's agent to go in after the fact and verify/correct these fields is a zero-risk/high reward scenario.
There are only 9 sales data fields the buyer's agent can access, each of which provides distinct value:
- Close Date- this is often erroneously populated with the date the listing is marked closed on the MLS rather than the actual date of the transaction. This is crucial information for searches, reports, CMAs, etc. that include listings marked closed during specific time periods.
- Seller Concessions Amount- this information is often not reported in the MLS because it is not a required field. Reporting concessions inaccurately (or not at all) can lead to incorrect sales prices being entered, which can negatively impact CMAs, statistical reports, appraisals, etc.
- First Time Home Buyer- the list agent may not know this information, but the buyer's agent definitely should. Having accurate data in this field provides valuable insight into current market trends.
- Financing Used- capturing this information allows users to search within the MLS for trends on how buyers are financing their home purchases.
- Buyers Relocating From- the list agent may not know this information, but the buyer's agent surely does. Relocation information, which also includes data on where sellers are going after closing, is vital when looking at industry trends. Click here to learn how to leverage SmartMLS Stats to capture this information (and much more!).
- Buyer Agent MLS ID- sometimes the wrong agent is entered as the buyer agent. We want to make sure all agents and teams get credit for their part in the transaction.
- Buyer Team ID- this does not automatically fill in when the buyer agent ID is entered, so it is often left blank. We want to make sure all agents and teams get credit for their part in the transaction.
- CoBuyer Agent MLS ID- CoBuyer Agent information is not required and often left blank, even when there was a CoBuyer Agent. We want to make sure all agents and teams get credit for their part in the transaction.
- CoBuyer Team ID- CoBuyer Team information is not required and often left blank, even when there was a CoBuyer Team. We want to make sure all agents and teams get credit for their part in the transaction.
These are the only fields that can be accessed and updated by the buyer's agent. Once a listing is marked closed, none of the listing's information is accessible, not even by the list agent or their management. There is zero chance that the buyer's agent can access or change any fields other than those 9 fields on the Edit Listing Status screen.
Related articles:
Reporting Concessions on Closed listings
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