Average Days On Market and are they important?

What are average days on market and why is it important?

Once you list your home for sale your property will accrue “Days On Market”, which is the time from listing to going off-market (by being active under a contract, pending sale, temporarily withdrawn, expired, or canceled). This is often abbreviated to DOM. The DOM figure can cause a lot of anxiety for sellers, as the longer the DOM, the less attractive sellers feel their property becomes.

There are also the terms “Cumulative Days On Market”(CDOM), the total number of days a property has been listed for sale, and “Agent Days On Market” (ADOM), which is the total days one agent has listed the property.

Often sellers wonder whether they can cancel and relist their homes to reset the DOM. However, consumer sites and multiple listing services (MLS’s) have rules to counteract this practice. For instance, Zillow will not reset its DOM calculator unless a property has been canceled and off-market for more than 31 days.

Each MLS (and there are over 800 in the USA that serves different cities) have their own rules concerning properties listed on their system and decide whether to impose penalties on brokerages for canceling and relisting to reset DOM. For example, the Miami Realtors impose a fine of $5000 and a review by their panel for this behavior on their MLS. Similarly, the San Francisco Association of Realtors imposes fines commencing at $1000 for such an infraction, which they call churning. “A listing is “churned” when a listing agent cancels a listing with the intention of relisting it after a short time so that it appears to be a new listing. Some agents churn listings because they believe that properties for sale with a low number of days on market will be more appealing to buyers.”

Many MLS’s have inbuilt algorithms to control the DOM calculator so that even a listing inputted as new will show the prior days on the market and determine the average days on market. The Arizona MLS, ARMLS, has the following rules: “It takes 90 days for a listing in an off-market status to reset. On the 91st day, you can relist the property and the new listing will reset to zero days on market…If a new agent relists the property less than 90 days from the Off-Market Date, ADOM will reset to zero, but the CDOM will carry over to the new listing.”In New York, a property has to be taken off the market for 90 consecutive days for the DOM to reset.

The Bareis MLS serving the Bay Area in California similarly states that “For the purpose of determining days on market, any renewal or extension filed with BAREIS fewer than 11 calendar days after the expiration date of the original listing shall be treated as an existing listing…CDOM applies to the total length of time a property is on the market, whether pursuant to a single listing agreement or multiple listing agreements and continues to accumulate days on market for the property until the property is sold. For the purpose of determining CDOM, if the property is withdrawn/canceled or expired for more than 90 days, CDOM will reset to zero if replaced with a new listing.”

The New England MLS, MLS PIN, requires that a listing has been off-market for at least 60 full, uninterrupted days before a new listing will not have the prior DOM added. The Metrotex Association of Realtors in Texas has an even more lenient rule, in that in order to cause a break in the CDOM accumulation, the property will need to be off the market for 31 days. “The Cumulative Days on Market accumulates on each listing and takes into account previous listings of the same property. If a property was on the market for 30 days and then relisted 15 days later, the CDOM will include the 30 days from the previous listing and will then accumulate the days for the new listing.” 

Similarly, the Northern California “MLS Listings“ require that before resetting DOM, a property be marked Cancelled/Expired/Sold for 31 or more days.

Take-away on average days on market why they are important?

Average days on market – are they important? Agents need to be cautious about how they go about relisting properties so as not to violate MLS rules regarding manipulation of DOM and home sellers need to be aware that changing agents/brokerages won’t necessarily help them reset their DOM. All may depend on how many days the property has been in off-market status.

Average Days on Market can be significant, as properties can look stale after sitting on the market for months. Richr’s statistics show that Richr sells properties 2.6 times faster than the competition. Our median time frame to sell individual single-family homes is 15 days compared to the industry median of 39. Check out Richr.com to see how you can keep more equity when you sell, and sell faster using our FREE platform.