Over 40% of the sales in the Twin Cities currently occurring are foreclosures or short sales, what we at MAAR call “lender mediated sales.”
The RMLS of Minnesota recently revised their fields regarding foreclosures and short sales (after a year of much confusion over the old fields) and we now have separate fields for in foreclosure, short sale and “lender owned.” This is great, but one place it really falls down is the 3rd option allowed for these fields… “not disclosed.”
In Foreclosure
To be honest, I don’t care if the house is in foreclosure if the seller can accept a full-price offer without getting approval from any 3rd party (bank). Consequently that field doesn’t matter to me no matter how it is marked.
Potential Short Sale
This field is a lot more important as”short sale” homes are often Liar Listings. If the list price is enough to pay off the mortgage and closing costs in full, then it is not a short sale and I don’t have an issue. If the price is not enough to pay in full and the seller will need to get 3rd party approval (which 99% of the time has not been secured yet) then you should have to disclose that no matter what. Not disclosing it in my opinion is not representing a true and accurate picture of the property and therefore the agent is breaking the Code of Ethics.
Lender Owned
Whether a property is lender owned or not isn’t absolutely critical to know since the listing is truly available for the price and terms listed on the MLS. I don’t mind the Not Disclosed field.
What Does “Not Disclosed” Mean?
Given that the options are Yes, No and Not Disclosed, my assumption is that when Not Disclosed is the selection that it really means Yes. If the answer for those questions was “no” most agents would select that since that is most likely the preferable situation. Hence, Not Disclosed is like saying: “it is Yes, but I’m not allowed to disclose to you that it is Yes.”
