I am not a conspiracy theorist, but doesnt it seem that a listing agent would want to leave REO outa the MLS listing? They are there to sell that property for the maximum possible. Their comissions and the banks $ recovery all depend on them selling fast, and at full price. Anything labeled “REO” is gonna get hit with a -10% off listing offer in this market, if not more. My poor and unMLS accessing memory tells me that this happened even with some of the few nice houses that have come up REO. So shouldnt the bias be to “accidently” not release that info as long as possible?

And dont tell me that agents are following all the rules about disclosure. How many times have you seen a house at 100+ days, or even 200+ days on market get removed from MLS, only to be relisted at 0 days on market the next day and have a note saying “priced to move…. get it before its gone”. Note the list price didnt move a wink and it’s still the same agent. (This is usually used in conjunction with the standard “we are expecting 3 offers tomorrow, so bid now” line. It is kinda hard to use that line if the house has been sitting for 8 months).

So, I guess if I was gonna question data, I would look to where the observed bias and inconstiancies in reporting are first. Especially if multiple independent spot checks of the .com data sets seems to hold up.