Tucson Multiple Listing Service Offers New Reporting System
Tucson Multiple Listing Service changes the reporting from "Days On Market" to "Cummulative Days On Market".
DOM…every realtor worth his or her salt knows that DOM is an acronym for “days on market”. It is an indicator of the number of days that a home has been listed for sale. Recently, I watched a national news special which “uncovered” the practice of re-listing a home in ordered to reset the DOM counter back to zero. It is a method that many listing agents use in hopes that a realtor or buyer on the other side will not do the homework to find out the real number of days that the home has been for sale. In Tucson, our local MLS has begun making two numbers readily available to realtors. The first is DOM, which indicates the number of days on market within the current active listing. The second is CDOM, which indicates the cumulative number of days the home has been on the market – adding together all of the days represented by expired listings and re-listings. Just yesterday I saw a home that had been on the market 4 days in the current active listing and over 400 days cumulatively.
So how does that help buyers or realtors representing buyers? The truth is, with a little homework realtors have always been able to discover cumulative days on market by simply checking the property history on a listing and doing the math. Buyers do not have access to property history on most local MLS websites. On many local MLS sites buyers still do not have access to DOM or CDOM numbers – one more reason to have an experienced realtor on your side.
Here are just a few reasons why DOM and CDOM are important pieces of information for a buyer to have in their pocket:
1.) A high CDOM number could be an indicator of a motivated seller. The rationale is that the seller has gotten the message by now that the property is over-priced. If the home is vacant it is possible and even probable that the seller is now paying two mortgages and must do something to stop the bleeding. So throw a low-ball offer and see what happens. Of course the opposite could be true – maybe the property has been sitting so long because the seller is unmotivated to sell at market price and is happy to have the property sit until just the right person comes along who is ready to buy above market price. Since we can’t get into the mind of the seller, only getting into negotiations to buy the home will tell the whole tale.
2.) CDOM has now become an important number to appraisers. If a property sells at the list price after sitting on the market for 375 days it is a red flag to an appraiser. Of course it is only one of many things an appraiser is factoring into the value of a property, but buyers and sellers need to be aware that it could be an issue. As a rule, 375 days on the market indicates over-reaching on price. Therefore, a buyer looking to purchase a home with a high CDOM will want to get the home under list price.
3.) Savvy buyers should also be interested in knowing CDOM because of the potential problems related to the condition of a home. On this point, it is not only important to know the CDOM number, but also how much of that time the home has been vacant. The danger is that a vacant home is not receiving normal and routine maintenance. Like a vehicle – homes are meant to be in operation. A vacant home may be deteriorating because of lack of maintenance. This is especially true of homes that are vacant and utilities have been shut off.
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