Proposed Rule Change for Short Sales in the Tucson MLS

December 20, 2008 | By Kelley Koehler | Filed Under Home Buying, Home Selling 

Landed in my inbox today, a proposed rule change, if I understand the message correctly:

MLS Rule Change for Short Sales

Section 3.18- Short Sales:

As used in these rules, short sales are defined as a transaction where title transfers; where the sale price is insufficient to pay the total of all liens and costs of sale; and where the seller does not bring sufficient liquid assets to the closing to cure all deficiencies.

Participants are required to disclose potential short sales to other participants by stating the following in the Agent Only Remarks: ‘Potential Short Sale’.

Within two (2) business days of seller’s acceptance of written contract, the listing broker shall change the short sale listing’s status in MLS to ‘Active Contingent’, ‘Active CAPA’,’Pending’ or ‘Sold’, as is appropriate per MLS Status Definitions.

Disclosure of short sale shall not be made in the Property Description, Marketing Remarks, or any other publicly viewable component of the MLS without the seller’s written permission to the listing broker.

What does that mean?  It means that short sales will be harder for the public to identify, assuming most sellers won’t want their property stigmatized by being advertised as a short sale in the public remarks.  I’ve got mixed feelings about this one.  From the seller perspective, it may generate more activity for their home sale – but then there’s a large group of buyers who don’t want to touch short sales, so they get excited about a home, call me about it, and then I get to tell them it is a short sale.

The problem with short sales is that only a small percentage actually close, and they can take months to do so.  Not every buyer can afford to wait like that.

What say you?

Comments

2 Responses to “Proposed Rule Change for Short Sales in the Tucson MLS”

  1. Scott on December 20th, 2008 11:43 pm

    The idea of MLS putting the buying public’s interest dead last surprises you how?

    MLS is an anti-competitive anachronism, doomed to die a slow death in this century. MLS monopolies are parasites feeding on both agents and customers, for services of dubious value, which can now be achieved for pennies on the dollar via the Web.

  2. Jim Johnson CRS on December 24th, 2008 12:52 pm

    Short sale and bank foreclosures make up a good percentage of home sales in Bend Oregon. It looks like a good time to buy in your area.

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