Central Ohio Real Estate Market News

• When a home is listed, the DOM starts at “1″. If the listing expires and the seller decides to change agents and re-lists with another agent, the DOM starts at “1″ again. If the first agent had the listing for 6-months, the real DOM is 181, but that number isn’t reflected in the published stats.
• If an agent changes brokers (like switching from ReMax to RealLiving), then the listing would be ‘withdrawn’ from the old broker, and ‘re-listed’ with the new broker, so the DOM starts at “1″ again.
• If a seller decides to ‘withdraw’ their home from the market for a month or so - such as over the winter holidays or when a new baby is born - when the home is re-listed, the DOM will start at “1″ again.
• Builders enter their spec homes into the MLS, even though it may be 2-3 months before the home is complete enough to be occupied and thus closed. Depending on the number of new builds in the area being quoted, this can skew the data.

I know of a home that has been on and off the market since 2004. The seller - or should I say “non-seller” - has been through 6 agents. In between agents, the seller puts out his little “for sale by owner” sign. The DOM on this home currently reads “35 days”. How misleading is that!

Now, when we’re working with buyers, we can view the archives for the property to see the TOTAL time the home has been for sale. We use that information when planning the strategy for the purchase offer.

But, that cumulative number is NOT the one you see in the newspaper reports or the reports that local Boards publish. In the last newspaper chart, the DOM was 127 days. 3-4 years ago, that number was around 90-100 days. So that would indicate a substantial increase. However, many of us feel that if the cumulative DOM were to be shown that the current number would be closer to 150-180, or higher!

In this slower market, sellers are more likely to change agents or take the home off the market for the MLS required 30 days, which refreshes the published DOM. So, when you see the DOM quoted in the newspaper, my advice is to not give it much credibility. Let your agent give you the REAL time on the market AND the price reduction history.

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