‘Zero Days on Market’: New Study Highlights Controversial Metric

This is the third in Inman’s five-part series on pocket listings in today’s market. Check back in the coming days for additional features and click here for the first installment and here for the second. Thursday: How real estate pros are finding off-markets listings via encrypted apps.

The number of listings that sell with zero days on market has soared since a national pocket listing policy went into effect, according to a controversial new study from Broker Resource Network obtained exclusively by Inman.

The study, “The Quiet Threat of Zero Days on Market,” aimed to measure the impact of the National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires listing brokers to submit a listing to their MLS within one business day of marketing a property to the public. The policy was designed to curb pocket listings, in part due to fair housing concerns, and had an implementation deadline of May 1, 2020.

Broker Resource Network, a spinoff of brokerage network The Realty Alliance, has 84 brokerages with between 200,000 and 400,000 agents combined as members. For the study, BRN members pulled data from a total of 24 multiple listing services comparing the number of properties sold in the MLS within 24 hours of being listed during two periods: 12 months before the May 1, 2020 Clear Cooperation Policy deadline and 12 months after.

According to the report, BRN members “immediately recognized a shift” after the deadline that was unexpected.

“In every market reviewed across the United States, brokerages recognized double and triple digit increases in Zero Days On Market listings across firms of all sizes and business models,” the report said. In one market, the increase was a whopping 844 percent.

Screenshot of sample data by office with broker name omitted

As a result, BRN’s report calls for a re-evaluation of the Clear Cooperation Policy.

“If this trend continues, we fear that it may erode the importance of the MLS, have devastating impact on fair housing, and create other business issues that would impair cooperation across our great industry,” said Kent Hanley, president of the Broker Resource Network, in a statement.

“It’s time for us all to engage in this conversation across networks, interest groups, and news sources for brokers in the industry today. Whether you are a franchisee, an independent, a traditional broker, an alternative model, a single or multi-office, local, regional, or even a national firm, this is a topic you should care about.”

The real estate industry should collaborate to understand the cause of the increase, according to BRN. “When policy has the opposite outcome of what is expected, the policy and the problem need to be readdressed,” the report said.

“Broker Resource Network would love to work with MLSs” to create a policy, BRN spokesperson Victor Lund of WAV Group told Inman via email, noting that a broker has come up with an alternative policy,…