Inactive listings on Zip

[VCJIM]

I’ve been tracking home on Zip in my local town in Ventura County. Zip lets you store 100 homes in “My Homes”. A day or two ago, there were 4 or 5 of the 100 houses listed as “inactive”. Today, there were 40! What gives? Are agents encouraging non-serious sellers to take their houses of the market? Do they only update once in a long while? The inventory dropped from 371 earlier today to 328. Does anyone know what “inactive” means to Zip? Sold, pending, removed from the market?

[lindismith]

I asked this same question on another forum, and got this answer:
“If a listing on Zip Realty says “inactive”, the listing is either in escrow, sold, withdrawn, or cancelled. If the listing is either cancelled or withdrawn, it is often re-listed within a few days.”

I have seen several houses listed multiple times, and each time I save them in My Zip folder, they duplicate. To me, it’s pretty clear the seller is trying to manipulate the Days On Market figures.

Zip appears to update daily in terms of MLS content. I’ve noticed most new listings appear in the MLS on Monday nights. Probably realtors are working hard on the weekends, and then the database updates within 24 hours or so. I can’t imagine it taking longer simply because in good times houses sell so fast that they’d want the database to update almost instantaneously.

Regarding the 40 inactives – that is a huge number. Maybe some of the realtors on this board can provide us more insight?

I have to give a huge shout-out to Zip – they’ve done a fantastic job with their website, which is tough because they have to please both buyers and sellers! Now if only my assigned agent would stop emailing me….

[powayseller]

I e-mailed my assigned agent, and told him I was a bubblehead, just looking. He was very respectful, and left me alone after that. You can also deselect “Notify by e-mail” before your search.

[hs]

Why you guys used” my assigned agent”? Did you sign contract with him(her)?

I have an agent who has been sending me listings everyday since last year, although I had told her we are not planning to buy. Does that mean she is my “assigned agent”? I didn’t sign any contract with her.

[SD Realtor]

Zip and every other on line listing provider receives thier listings through a service called IDX. IDX is a great business by the way… wish I would’ve thought of it. IDX providers pay local real estate association for a distilled version of thier databases. IDX providers then sell thier distilled databases to places like Zip, Housevalues, even other brokerages. I even use IDX on my website. This has been the primary technology that has empowered consumers to search for homes on line. It really is a very cool thing.

Now, in the actual MLS (at least the SDAR MLS) the following listing classifications are as follows:

active – actively for sale
pending – in escrow. (note you can be in escrow and still be active but that applies only if there is a sales contingency in place)
sold – sold
withdrawn – the listing is still under contract but has been withdrawn from active status. (maybe the sellers are rehabbing or taking a break) Note that market time will not increment during this classification.
cancelled – The listing agreement has been cancelled at the request of the seller or broker.
expired – The listing agreement has expired.

Now if you are looking at a site like you mentioned, Zip and the listing is inactive my guess would be it is either withdrawn, cancelled or expired. The distillation of the MLS information doesn’t really allow you to find out. Call an agent who is a member of that association and you can find out.

Also in answer to the above posting, if you have not signed a representation agreement then there is no binding contract in place. There really is not such a term as an “assigned” agent. Either you are represented (through a signed contract) or you are not.

I routinely send people MLS listings without a contract. It is part of the business. Frequently they take those listings and work with other people and that kind of sucks but it is part of the job. Thats the way it goes!

[SD Realtor]

one last thing…IDX receives downloads on a regular basis from the target MLS. Recall every association has thier own MLS. So the time from when the agent actually changes the status of a listing, to when the IDX grabs it, then updates thier database, and then sends it to the 3rd party subscriber (in this case Zip) is usually a day or so… Sometimes even longer but not usually.

Also expect to see alot of listings to start dropping off as we come to a summer close. Listing contracts that were established in the spring are hitting expirations. In a desperate attempt to keep the customer, agents are telling people to drop out and come back next spring and everything will be magically okay again.

[SD Realtor]

one last thing…IDX receives downloads on a regular basis from the target MLS. Recall every association has thier own MLS. So the time from when the agent actually changes the status of a listing, to when the IDX grabs it, then updates thier database, and then sends it to the 3rd party subscriber (in this case Zip) is usually a day or so… Sometimes even longer but not usually.

Also expect to see alot of listings to start dropping off as we come to a summer close. Listing contracts that were established in the spring are hitting expirations. In a desperate attempt to keep the customer, agents are telling people to drop out and come back next spring and everything will be magically okay again.

[powayseller]

hs, when you go on ziprealty to do a search, you have to enter your email address and zip code to get details on the properties. Then they assign a Ziprealty agent to you, based on your zip code where you live. It is just a marketing tool for ZipRealty. The “assigned agent” emails you and tries to establish a relationship. It is the agent that ZipRealty assigns to you. But you can just tell them you are not seriously interested, and they stop sending you e-mails.

[hs]

Thank you both for the answer. I appreciated it.

[Author]

Posts