Brushing up on your MLS rules

By Sarah Louppe Petcher

Question: Can listing agents exclude certain people from accessing a listing or exclude certain agents from their offer of cooperation?

Answer: The seller may direct the agent to exclude certain prospects from the property. Article XI, Section 9 of the MRIS rules states that the listing broker must clearly indicate in the Agent Remarks section that certain prospects will be excluded, without naming any specific prospect. Agents seeking cooperation should ascertain from the listing brokers whether they are representing potentially excluded prospects.

A listing entered in the MLS must offer cooperation to all subscribers of the MLS. Article X Section 4, clearly states that listings must include an unconditional offer of compensation, and Article XVI, Section 1 provides that at the time a listing is entered in the MLS, it must be available for showing by all agents. Therefore, listings which exclude a particular brokerage or a particular agent from receiving compensation or prevent showing by certain agents cannot be entered in the MLS.

Question: I have clients who want to list their house for rent, and any lease would be conditional upon them finding an alternative residence. The house has been advertised in the MLS for a number of weeks and we have been processing applications, but my clients cannot find another place to live. They still want us to process applications in case they find another place. Prospective tenants want their application fees returned because the house was not actually available for rent.

Answer:  Article XI, Section 15 of the MRIS rules specifies that all listings in the MLS must be currently available for rent or for sale. In the question posed, the property is not actually available for rent until the current owners find alternative housing. Such listing would be acceptable if there was a date certain by which the owners would vacate the premises, but under the stated fact pattern, the listing should not be entered in the MLS. For rentals, MRIS does include a Date Available field. In the situation described, the application fees would need to be returned.

Question: What do the various statuses mean? Agents seem to confuse the use of certain statuses such as Contingent with Kick Out vs. No Kick Out.

Answer:  MRIS uses the following status types to indicate a property's availability:

ACTIVE: The property is available for showing with no contingencies, contract or rental application registered against it.

CNTG/KO (Contingent with Kick Out): The property is available, but has a contract with at least one pending contingency that includes a kick out clause.

CNTG/NO KO (Contingent with No Kick Out): The property is available but has a contract with at least one pending contingency, and the pending contingencies do not contain kick out clauses.

APP REG (Application registered): The property is available, but a rental application has been registered on it.

CONTRACT: The property has a ratified contract with no pending contingencies.

SOLD: The property is sold and settled.

RENTED: The listing has been rented.

TEMPORARY OFF: The property is not available for showing. This status is for short term use, 14 days or less, and must have seller approval.

EXPIRED: The listing agreement has expired.

WITHDRAWN: The listing agreement has been terminated prior to its listing expiration date.