San Diego real estate blog - Peter Toner

Nightline exposed the practice of Real Estate Agent’s “refreshing” properties in order to make them more appealing to buyers. The concept of “refreshing” is simple. A real estate agent lists a home, and hopes it will sell quickly. In some cases the home sits on the market for a while, becoming “stale” to prospective buyers. Once the listing agent gets the feedback from multiple buyers that the home has been on the market for “too long” and there “must be something wrong with it” the agent then takes the home off the market and “relists” it as a shiny “new” listing. “Tah Dah”… now the home that was on the market for 130 days looks like a brand new listing. Sounds great to a seller, but not to a buyer if they find out they have been mislead into believing a home is a “new listing” when in fact it was just “refreshed” by the listing agent.

We prefer not to use the practice of “refreshing” with our listings. We advise our sellers that it is misleading to buyers and most agree that they’d prefer to behave “kosher” and play nice. When we represent buyer’s we make sure to do our due diligence and research the listing history of homes that our buyers express interest in - as MLS subscribers we have access to the complete listing history. Should there be anything of question regarding the listing time period, we can address it with the listing agent. If your agent is not doing this for you, then shame, shame on them.

Many agents are repeat offenders of the “refreshing” practice and do it as soon as their listing hits 120 days, 60 days and sometimes even as soon as 30 days! A buyer that has been educated on the “true” history will feel more confident about deciding whether or not they want to buy the home and how much to offer the seller.

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