The new MLS® policy, Processing Cancellations and Suspensions of Listing Agreements, came into effect in August of 2014:
4. Upon checking 1 in 5 cancellations and suspensions, if any audited cancellation or suspension of listing agreement is found to be in contravention of the RAHB’s Rules and Regulations, Section 3, and is missing the seller’s signature and date of signing or missing the listing broker of record’s signature(s), the listing will be reactivated and a fine will be assessed as outlined in MLS® policy #23, as follows: $250 for first offense, $500 for second offense,$750 for third or subsequent offences. Following the third offense the member’s broker load privileges may be reviewed.
The following new MLS® policy, Individual and Combined Listings, is effective immediately:
5. When marketing individual and combined listings; when a combined listing is sold, the individual listings associated with the sold listing will be cancelled by way of a cancellation of listing agreement signed by the seller and broker. The cancellation must be received by RAHB or processed through broker load the same day as the report of sale for the combined listing. On the first offence a warning letter will be forwarded; on the second or any subsequent offence a $100 fine will be issued.
This new policy allows members to market commercial listings individually and in combination without fear of skewing statistics.
This policy has required the addition of a new field in Broker Load called “Leased Area” when a property is leased. This field allows the member to accurately report the specific amount of square footage leased.
Example:
A commercial plaza may be listed with four individual units. Each unit is 1,000 sqft. Each unit is listed separately and assigned four separate MLS® numbers.
However, the four individual units may also be leased together for a total of 4,000 sqft. In order to market this option, members will now be able to enter a fifth listing in addition to the four individual units to list all four units together. Until now, RAHB did not allow this, as it was seen as a duplication which may skew statistics based on how the listings are reported.
Using the above example, should two of the individual units be leased, the lease would be reported on the fifth listing which listed all four units together. The “Leased Area” field would be completed with the value of “2,000 sqft”. The two individual units that were listed and are now leased would then be cancelled. The other two individual units would remain active for lease. The member may then complete another combined listing with the remainder of the two units listed together for a total square footage of 2,000 sqft.