Earlier this week Reno Ignoramus asked if I could mine the MLS to determine the number of Real Estate agent-owned properties listed on the MLS. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to accomplish this task; short of reading through all the MLS Remarks, the Extended Remarks, and the Private Remarks for every listing – all 8,000 of them.
With my curiosity piqued however, I decided to manually search a subset of the MLS listings. The area I chose for this task was everyone’s favorite Master Planned Golf Community, Somersett.
Although the task was time-consuming, I found it interesting, somewhat entertaining, and occasionally alarming. A few of the remarks I came across really had me wondering, “What was the purpose here?” Perhaps, I can explore that as another post another time.
Anyway, back to the task at hand. I began with the Somersett Active listings. There are 110 Active listings at the moment. (Note: I included the “Active-Pending…” listings with the “Pendings” below.)
110 Actives
REALTOR®-owned: 10
Pulte/The Vue: 5
Pulte/Del Webb’s Sierra Canyon: 4
Monterey Development Group/The Village: 1
Monterey Development Group/Ventana: 2
Monterey Development Group/Versante: 2
Toll Brothers/Sonterra: 3
Toll Brothers/Mountain Crest: 3
Remaining: 80
Of the Active listings, there are 20 Builder-owned; 10 REALTOR®-owned; and 80 privately owned. I was somewhat surprised by the large number listings from builders. I knew that the builders were listing some of their inventory on the MLS, I just didn’t realize how much of the current Somersett MLS inventory was builder-owned. Incidentally, these counts do not represent the builders’ entire standing inventory; these numbers are just what the builders have decided to list on the MLS at the moment.
Next I read through the remarks for the Somersett Pendings. Here’s the breakdown:
19 Pendings
REALTOR®-owned: 0
Pulte/Del Webb’s Sierra Canyon: 2
Monterey Development Group/Versante: 1
Monterey Development Group/The Village: 1
other builder-owned: 1
Remaining: 14
Interestingly, the Builders seem to have a nice share (26%) of the Pendings. Perhaps the 4% commission that Pulte and Monterey are offering to the Buyer’s broker is working as planned.
Mike Van H, you mentioned possibly writing a search string to query the raw data of the MLS database. In order to do this, you said that you needed the exact wording of the agent’s disclosure in the Remarks section. Unfortunately there is no standard for how an agent discloses his or her status/relationship as a licensed agent. For example, here are the phrases I found in the Remarks sections when I performed the task above.
Seller is Nevada Licensee
Sell is licensed RE Agent in NV
SELLER IS A CA REAL ESTATE AGENT
ONE OF THE OWNERS IS A LICENSED NEVADA REAL ESTATE AGENT
Owner is a Nevada real estate agent
Owner is a Nevada licensee
Seller is licensed NV Real Estate agent
Seller is related to agent
Agent is related to seller
6 comments
Thanks Guy for the info. I appreciate the effort it took. There are at least 3 other realtor owned houses in Somersett that show up on Craigslist from time to time that do not appear to be listed on the MLS. Interesting that the realtor owners are choosing to keep the houses off the MLS.
So that puts the percent of realtor owned houses on the market, at least for Somersett, around 10%. Interesting info. Also interesting that not one of the realtor owned houses has a pending offer. Maybe they are all already upside down on their I/O, nothing down, stated income, option ARM Voodoo loan and “can’t” lower their price any further?
Guy:
Why is there always a difference in the MLS numbers that you and Diane quote and what appears on the IDX version made available on your website? For example, you say there are 110 Somersett listings and 19 have an offer. But the IDX version indicates there are 122 listings and only 12 have an offer.
Reno,
Under the top-level MLS categories of Active, Sold, Pending, Expired, etc. are sub categories. For example, under “Active” are the following sub-categories: “New”, “Back on Market”, “Extended”, “Priced Raised”, “Price Reduced”, “Active/Pending - Call”, “Active/Pending - House”, and Active/Pending - Loan”. Diane and I both feel that these last three “Active/Pending…” sub-categories belong under “Pending” rather than “Active”. These listings are, after all, under contract. So whenever we report numbers we have to manually adjust what the MLS spits out. This requires additional time and effort on our part, but we feel our numbers more accurately reflect what’s happening in the market at a given time. And, as you know, we strive for accuracy. Besides, you guys are worth the extra effort.
Anyway, that’s why you will almost always find a small discrepancy between the numbers we report and the figures produced by the IDX or other feeds.
“Maybe they are all already upside down on their I/O, nothing down, stated income, option ARM Voodoo loan and “can’t” lower their price any further?”
BB, you got me really curious about what kind of loan packages people actually have. I researched the 10 latest listings in 89523 and here is what I came up with:
1 - 1/29 ADJ (1.75% teaser LIBOR + 2.25)
1 - 2/28 ADJ (7.64% LIBOR +6.64%)!
1 - 3/27 ADJ
2 - 5/25 ADJ I/O
4 - 5/25 ADJ
1 - 30 fixed.
Where I could check the original loan amounts (purchases after July 2003), about 70% put at least 20% down and 30% put 10% down. There were no loans with less than 10% down, and no Option ARM’s. Other than that one toxic 2/28 (which adjusted this month) the rates seemed to be pretty OK.
Judging from listing prices and my guess at what the sales prices will be, 4 of the properties are totally underwater (all HELOCed), 2 will show loss of some equity, 2 will lose money but have enough equity to cover it, and 2 might just make a little money.
Let’s not forget the agents that “forget” to divulge their Realtor status in the listing. My wife and I came within a week of buying a condo in the Arlington Towers. Through our own research we found out that the seller was not only a realtor, but the director of a local realtor board (YS, you know who you are). She also neglected to mention that the condo needed almost $20K in asbestos abatement. We got out of contract just days before the closing. I should also mention that we successfully recovered all damages directly from this realtor, but only after several heated discussions with her broker. And there was a lot more deception involved than I’m willing to post here. But I will say this, I will NEVER trust a realtor again as long as I live.
EyesWide:
Good for you in doing your own research before it was too late. I am amazed at how many people will spend 20 hours of online research before they purchase a $300 digital camera, but when it comes to paying 100s of 1000s of dollars for a house, they do nothing. Just leave it all up to the realtor. Who, of course, has only their best interests at heart.