by Tanta on 2/21/2008 08:17:00 AM

Our blogleague James Bednar of New Jersey Real Estate Report gets quoted by ABC News (who fails to provide the blog link in the online version, ahem) on the subject of relitter relisting:

"When you re-list a home, you know, it's still been on the market for X amount of time, but a buyer that comes in with another agent very likely won't know," Niece said.

Here's how it works: Niece cancels house listings when they reach 70 days on the market, and then re-lists them as new, with 0 days on the market.

"So, when the buyer says, 'Well, how long's this one been on the market?' And he looks at a report that normally an agent or a buyer would have when they're showing houses, it only shows the current time on the market," Niece said. "So a buyer's going to be way more positive as they look through a home that says 25 days versus 125 days." . . .

Across the country in Sacramento, California, the problem got so bad that Michael Lyon, CEO of Lyon Real Estate, blew the whistle after he noticed that one third of all "new" listings were re-listings.

"This is just silliness," he said. "I'm sorry, but you can't pull the wool over the buyer's eyes."

Lyon forced his regional listing service to set a new standard. "We let people see all the previous listings, period, there are no secrets," he said. "We want the buyer to know everything about all the times it was listed, so we can allow them to truly investigate the home."

The Sacramento listing service also requires a material change in the house if it is to be re-listed. Other regional listing services have gone one step further, forcing sellers to take their home off the market for 30 days before posting it again. But because listing services are local agencies, each makes its own rules.

And then:

The National Association of Realtors says it hasn't seen a need for regulation on re-listing because it is not aware of a problem.