Multiple Listing Service… It is all about the Listings

by Boe Davis

This is our second installment about how a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) functions and how it could help manufactured home sales throughout the country. In this article we will explore the type of listings which can be found on a MLS and their value to MLS participants.

It all about the listing!

As any real estate sales professional will tell you it is about getting the listing. You have to get the customer to sign on the line which is dotted. Once you are the listing agent you now get to work on selling the home. Then it is a matter of repeating this process over and over. Sounds simple, right? Let’s dig a little deeper.

New Listings

With respect to utilizing the MLS, the first step anyone takes is listing the home as available for sale. This listing will provide details about the home such as price, size/sq feet, bedrooms, baths, etc…The information can be as detailed as is required and can have all the promotional bells and whistles that technology allows. In most cases participants will use the MLS to research other listings and COMPS to make sure they are in line with current market conditions.

Keep in mind on a MLS you are not only listing the home as available you are extending an offer to share the commission to other MLS participants in your local market who bring you a qualified buyer.

So, when creating that listing take your time, make sure you have all the information you need to list, double check it and then make that listing available. As you will see it not only matters when bringing the home to market but also in other area’s as well.

Expired/Withdrawn Listings

They are exactly that. Either the listing agreement has expired and no one is representing this particular homeowner or the listing was withdrawn. If the home can’t be sold for any reason a new home retailer may want to extend a cash buyout to acquire home, in or outside of a manufactured home community. This has been a common practice in California for many years.

Of more importance though is why the home didn’t sell.

No one can control a homeowner who has a change of plans or heart but where the home was listed and the listing expired you have to ask yourself why. Age of the home, condition, asking price relative to the market, the community it is in?…whatever the reason as a sales professional you need to know that. It helps you to better serve current and future clients.

Comparable Sales Listings (COMPS)

COMPS - The holy grail of any MLS! Comparable sales data is part of the life blood of the MLS. The data contained in comparable sales helps to properly price a home in a given market. You can search for a comparable home to one you wish to list and depending on the data you find you set the price. COMPS speed and smooth the appraisal process as well by providing a credible resource for lenders to use when seeking a loan for a home purchase.

But there is more there if you search deeply into the data. You can begin to see market trends in terms of price, time on market, increased or decreased listing activity, home prices moving up in certain areas or communities, home sales in relation to rents, think of any data and it can usually be found and used in a number of ways. You can increase your activity and exposure in a hot market and conversely you can pull back when the market slows.

Two critical points need to be made here and it must be understood that without accepting them you won’t be able to fully benefit from a MLS for manufactured home sales.

1. The information is only valuable if it is accurate in every detail. To that end you must take great care to not only list the home information correctly from the beginning but as the listing evolves (changes in price, pending sale, closed sale) so that when the listing is accessed by other MLS participants they see the most current and correct information.

2. Every MLS participant must list every home they have under contract. You cannot hold back your best listings or only list those homes that are difficult to sell. Every home MUST be listed without exception.

Can we build a MLS for manufactured home sales in communities? Yes. But it must be understood that to succeed there are going to be requirements in terms of how you can use and access a MLS to do so. If we can work together we can create benefits for ourselves and others in our business. If we can’t work together then we can continue on treading water and hoping something will change our fortunes. Our view is it is time to get to work on this.

What do you think? As we continue on with these articles we hope to hear from you. You can contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your comments and questions and will endeavor to reply directly or via a new article here at MHProNews.com, thanks. # #

Next Column coming up: Forms/Documentation/Process

Boe Davis works for the MHB Group which is based in Sunnyvale California. The MHB Group has been serving manufactured communities for almost 40 years with our custom magazine service Mobile Home Park Magazines that reaches 200,000 readers every month in Arizona and California. The MHB Group administered MHMLS.org for almost 30 years helping Santa Clara Valley manufactured sales professionals organize the resale home market. You can contact Boe via email ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or toll free 800 828 8242 x3107.