In your settings for your IDX search you can specify which properties will be displayed by default in searches. The options look like this:
The Con:
Unless you’re doing a CMA, which means you can look up the sold properties to make that happen, let’s talk about why you do not want to allow default display of sold properties in your searches.
Your prospective buyer is searching for a home, and they have a set of criteria, including features, areas and price range. Can they buy a home that just sold? Silly question, as we know they can’t. Why would we want them wandering through sold properties matching their criteria? While we want them comparing active properties that meet their criteria, comparing active homes to ones already sold can bring problems:
- “This home that just sold was priced lower but has larger rooms than the ones I’m seeing for sale.”
- “Why can’t we find an active listing just like this one that sold last month?”
- “Three of these homes that sold three months ago were all priced lower, so maybe we can make a really low offer on the active home we like best.”
We can readily see that they’re using old information to make negative comparisons to the current market and homes available to them.
Now, what about pending sales? After all, they may not get to closing and could become available to our buyer. Therein lies the problem, as most if not all will close, and they can only cause our buyer to delay making a buying decision. Making a backup offer, though usually welcomed by the seller, definitely puts the brakes on any other buying activity. During the delay, they could lose the opportunity to purchase a home they already know meets their needs.
The Pro:
Of course, we all will respond to direct requests by our clients to view recently sold or pending sale properties. The concept of over-the-top service would dictate that you provide custom search results for appropriate sold properties that are similar to a listing client’s home. That way they can use the data you provide in working with you to arrive at the proper sale price.
However, if you have one of those “do-it-themselves” types, you may want to allow them to do their own searches, and this would require that you change the settings such that they can do so. Think about it though, and offer to send along custom results rather than letting them choose comps that may not be appropriate.
I cant find this option inside my diverse solutions IDX on the Alaska MLS. Also the same on a different client on the NWmls. Is it still possible to show pending and sold listings?
Hello Kelvin,
Every MLS provide different options for property statuses. Some give us all statuses, some only give us active and pending, and some only give us active.
Currently, Alaska MLS only provides us with active listings. So, you would NOT be able to display pending or sold listings.
NWMLS (out of Seattle) currently provides us with active, backup / contingent, pending, and sold listings. So, you should see these statuses for this specific MLS.
To see the status options you would need to click “Filters” under the IDX tab when logged into your WordPress Admin. Then, scroll down and you should see the status options beneath the property type options.
For NWMLS, the options would look like this: http://prntscr.com/9m160u
If you are not seeing the correct statuses for NWMLS please contact our support team for additional assistance at [email protected].
So active, backup / contingent, pending, and sold listings would also be sent in Email Alerts that match a saved search?
Hello Kelvin,
We do send out property update emails for all statuses except sold listings. However, this is something we are likely to add in the future.
Well as soon as you do the SOLD listings, you will have a new customer. Any timeline for that?
Hello Kelvin,
There is no timeline at this time for when we may add email updates specific to sold listings. We’re constantly working on adding new features, though.