The Twin Cities MLS announced today to Realtors that they will soon be implementing 3 new search fields in the MLS.   They expect it to go live within the MLS by next week Tuesday.  There is a 3 week period where it remains in development so the staff can fix any bugs in the new search criteria.  But after that, it will be made available to the public to search.

The list should be good, but not fully comprehensive.  As agents, we will be required to get the okay from the property seller to be able to disclose if they are in a short sale situation or foreclosure.   We have 3 choices with each criteria and they are: yes, no and not disclosed.   If a property is upside down, the seller doesn’t have to disclose that they are in a short sale situation, but most do.  It’s a courtesy to the buyers as well as the other agents.

For purposes of the MLS search, NorthStarMLS is defining foreclosure and short sales as follows:

“In foreclosure” defined as the homeowner being served official notice of foreclosure by a governing entity.

“Short Sale” defined as a transaction where title transfers where the sales price is insufficient to pay the total of all liens and costs of the sale; and where the seller does not bring sufficient liquid assets to the closing to cure all deficiencies.

This will be very helpful and help us all to get much greater visibility going forward as the the state of financially distressed homeowners in the Twin Cities.