New CTG (Contingent) Status Coming Soon 

Maybe its a sign of the times, but MLS listings across the country have become victim to "syndication" on  a multitude of real estate-related websites all geared to empower prospective buyers with information.  Unfortunately, many of these syndicated sites (including the "big names" that start with "Z" and "T" and Realtor.com) have fallen victim to data field changes made by local MLS boards that are not supported by the syndicated site. 

A case in point was the "active-flagged" status utilized by the Massachusetts MLSPin.  Listing agents used the active-flagged status to indicate to local real-estate salespersons and brokers that a particular property was technically off the market, but was not being flagged as "under agreement" because of contingencies - subject to mortgage approvals, subject to to inspection, subject to execution of a purchase and sale agreement, etc.  In recent years, however, listing agents were more akin to utilizing the "active-flagged" status for a more sinister reason - - so many deals were falling apart because of financing that they did not want to take the property off the market and wanted to continue to take back up offers (Note:  this is a seller's decision, not an agent's decision, but I'll save this discussion for another day.)  Recently, because of the "hot" market that we've all be experiencing, listing agents have been using the "active-flagged" status to continue to attract buyers in the hopes of capturing the buyer and selling them a different home.

Buyers' agents have been incensed by this ploy by (unscrupulous, unethical, uninformed, mis-informed, etc.) listing agents.  We all could see that a property was "active-flagged" and knew pretty well after a discussion with a listing agent whether it made sense to show the property to our buyer clients (or if the listing agent was actually allowing additional showings or offers to be extended).  Buyers, on the other hand, could not see the "flagged" status of the listing, so they were left with the impression that all buyers agents are lazy and don't want to show them the home.  The reason was because the syndicated sites like "Z" "T" and Realtor.com continued to show the home as "active", with no indication that there was an existing offer on the home for sale.

The folks at Massachusetts MLSPin remedied this situation a few weeks ago by restricting the "active-flagged" status only for those listings where a kick-out or similar clause was part of the sales contract.

In order to appease listing agents who genuinely wanted to continue to market a property under agreement, the MLSPin Board recently designed a new classification "CTG - Contingent" to replace the old "active-flagged" status with the objective to clearly state the reason why a  listing is still available for showing:

The CTG must meet one of the following conditions:  
. 

1. Inspection

2. Attorney Review

3. Appraisal

4. Financing

5. Third-party Approval

6. Pending P&S  

This new status will be fed out to all third-party websites as 'Contingent,' not as 'Active.' MLSPin hopes to  eliminate much of the confusion in the marketplace with this change, so that buyers and real estate agents alike will be able to determine whether they would like to see a particular property. An important feature with the "CTG-Contingent" status is that any third-party not able or willing to display the status as Contingent (or something of similar effect) will not be fed these listings.

Time will only tell if this new information is being utilized by the third-party syndicated sites and whether they will modify their programs to feed the "CTG - Contingent" status or if it will remain to be a point of confusion to buyers to see these listings, or a point of concern to buyers who no longer will have access to these listings and must wait to see if they come back on the market or eventually sell.