Two important policy changes were made at the last MLS Board of Directors meeting, based on member feedback.

• First, if there is a Right of First Refusal on a property, you MUST indicate that in the Realtor-to-Realtor Remarks in FlexMLS, but you NO LONGER have to mark it with a contingency flag. We discovered that the syndication sites were marking those listings as “pending” and virtually stopping all inquiries. By adding that disclosure to the remarks field, those listings will still be exposed to the open market.

• Second, in the limited cases where a seller signs and Exclusive Right to Sell agreement before they are ready to market the listing, they sign a Delayed Dissemination form with a specific date for entry into the MLS. The MLS will now accept the specific date shown on the Refusal to List form as the start date for calculation of Days on Market (DOM) for accuracy. We had complaints that a home that couldn’t be shown due to renovations was “stigmatized” with excessive DOM simply because they signed an Exclusive Right to Sell agreement, yet the home was never actually on the market for sale.

The Board of Directors always welcomes your feedback and suggestions, so please feel free to share with us!