The move towards harmonized rules has been taking place for over 11 years and increased in importance with the launch of Pillar 9™, our provincial MLS® System.
CREB® members were advised of rule changes in advance of the Pillar 9™ migration, which included the retirement of the ‘U’ status.
For many years, AREA’s Change Management Committee (CMG) has managed harmonized rule changes. They are responsible for updating rules, including the business rules directly related to the operation of the MLS® System.
The retirement of the ‘U’ status was not popular among CREB® members. It created an ongoing challenge of having to interpret communications among REALTORS®, rather than being able to rely on an MLS® System status.
As always, our focus in sensitive business practice work is to engage members as much as possible. We worked hard to get the CMG to adopt our member engagement process and were pleased when the CMG surveyed all Alberta REALTORS® in May. The goal of the survey was to strike the right balance of rules that are both supportive of a cooperative MLS® System and flexible so REALTORS® can best represent their clients based on their unique circumstances.
Pending sale reporting has been a hot button topic not only for CREB® members, but for those around the province. We continue to believe in the principle that listing statuses should be common sense and easily understood. We continue to advocate that the status should be based on the written instruction of the seller and be readily understood with no need for additional conversations.
In a welcoming letter to the new RECA volunteer leadership last January, we established the challenges with pending sale reporting as an important issue for our members. Then, in April, we responded to a request from RECA’s Residential Real Estate Council for more background information on this issue.
Essentially, it boils down to how we manage a listing in Active status.
Once an offer is accepted on a property, the seller is presented with their options. We believe that in the case of a conditional offer, the property should be reported as either ‘Pending’ (and no further marketing occurs) or ‘Under Contract’ (and the marketing of the property will continue).
To be very clear, our vision for status options in the MLS® System is as follows:
Active (A) = Active. There is no conditional sale in place. There is no option to indicate a property is Active on the MLS® System when it is conditionally sold.
Pending (P) = Conditionally Sold. The property is removed from data uploads to public websites and marketing ends.
Under Contract (U) = Conditionally Sold. The property remains in data uploads to public websites as Active, but the status of the listing is “Under Contract” in the MLS®System.
Sold (S) = A sold property with no remaining conditions.
Our advocacy to RECA included a call for the Real Estate Act to be enforced upon by setting out principles that empowers the industry to deliver solutions that demonstrate a commitment to self-regulation. With RECA’s position becoming clear in the information Bulletin The Real Estate Act & Board Rules, we will turn our attention to proactively working with our provincial colleagues to deliver a new solution.
We know that a practice rule, such as pending sale reporting, can be the source of much debate and frustration. We want to reinforce that our goal is to not only achieve a province-wide solution, but to land an outcome that meets the expectations and needs of our members.
We will provide updates as we move closer to a final decision.
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