As offers are being made and accepted daily, you might wonder when and how a sale should be reported. In this article, our CREB^® Member Practice team will provide tips on reporting conditional and unconditional sales on time to avoid being fined. 

Reporting conditional sales

Conditionally sold listings must be reported on the MLS^® System as "pending." Listing agents are responsible for updating their listings within two business days of accepting an offer, regardless of whether the deposit has been received.

What if there is a time clause?

An MLS^® listing subject to a time clause may be reported as pending or active with a time clause as required by the board’s MLS^® System.

To remain in active status, two criteria must be met:

1. The seller must provide the listing brokerage with written instructions to maintain the listing as active on the MLS^® System.
2. The listing agent must disclose the existence of the time clause and the notice period using the time clause feature available on the Pillar 9™ input tool.

If a seller wants to disclose the existence of a time clause and have it marked as pending, listing agents can make those disclosures in the private remarks.

Reporting unconditional sales

When an unconditional offer is accepted or conditions are removed, the listing must be reported as sold within two business days of accepting the offer, regardless of whether the deposit has been received. Unconditional sales should not be reported as pending while awaiting the deposit, as that would be a violation of CREB^® Rule Part III 6.01.

CREB® Rule Part III 6.01: An important part of the inherent value of the board’s MLS^® System is the transaction data accumulated for the sale of MLS^® listings.

a. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all board members, regardless of their business model, to report to the board all unconditional sales, including the selling price, by broker loading to the board’s MLS^® System or in writing within two (2) business days of when conditions, if any, are removed.

b. The above rules apply to an expired listing subsequently sold under the listing contract hold-over clause.