DOMP

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[edit] The History Behind DOMP

Days on the Market Property (DOMP) is a measurement in days of how long that a home has been listed for sale to the public in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). Although much lesser known than the phrase "days on the market" (DOMM), DOMP is directly associated with DOMM, which is the acronym that homebuyers are most familiar with. The MLS is infamously controlled by the real estate industrial complex (REIC) and has been the subject of many lawsuits.

Prior to the historic [1] Housing Bubble that formed in or around 2001 due to loose credit and irrational exhuberance, the term DOMP was practically a mystery to anyone other than real estate industry insiders.

When the Housing Bubble began to rapidly deflate in late 2005, the inventory of homes for sale exploded, which caused both sales and prices to fall well below levels predicted by leading economists. These economists were frequently separated into varying levels of respect depending on their affiliation with the REIC, because the National Association of Realtors (NAR) economists were caught time and time again giving blatantly incorrect, and glowing predictions about the state of the housing market despite what was actually happening in many U.S cities.

To prop up rapidly falling sales real estate agents across the country began to rely on the process of manipulating the amount of days that homes had been on the market more than ever to attract buyers and maintain sales prices. And, due to inconsistent rules concerning the practice in the various regional MLS's across the country, there were great disparites. Some MLS's allowed it and some didn't. Some MLS's even charged real estate agents to alter the statistics [2] [3], and referred to the practice as "refreshing a listing." In general however, the old guard of the real estate industry considered the practice as deceptive at best, and fraudulent at worst. Rumors of possible lawsuits circulated in the industry due to the fact that homes that had been on the market for long periods of time were considered to be overpriced and thus not worth their advertised sales prices. The practice also stood in dark contrast to the National Association of Realtor's [4] Code of Ethics that prohibits doing anything that is deceptive to buyers.

Shocking articles such as [5] "How Local Real Estate Agents Deceive The Public" by Bloggers finally exposed how DOMP and DOMM were being manipulated to deceive the public. A graphic illustration can be found at this link [6].

For demonstration purposes, we will create a ficticious house for sale at $400,000, and assign it an MLS number of 123456. This listing would start off with 0 DOMM and 0 DOMP. Over the course of 6 months, this home fails to sell and undergoes several price cuts, which brings the price down to $340,000. In this scenario, the 123456 listing as it would be known would now show up as having been for sale/on the market for 180 days, and would subsequently have an MLS record of 180 (days) DOMM and 180 (days) DOMP. Being that it failed to sell, and despite the many price cuts that have occured to sell this home, a now worried real estate agent may do what is called a relist or re-list. This is where the agent and buyer either cancel the listing or withdraw the home from the market with the intention of immediately putting it back up for sale. Doing this changes the initially assigned MLS number of 123456 to something new such as 123645, and presents it again to the homebuying public as a brand new listing/home on the market. While rules vary in the various MLS regions, this action would cause the DOMM and DOMP to now look like this: 0 DOMM and 180 DOMP, because the DOMM number is explicitly tied to the MLS number. In some MLS systems, the DOMP is not allowed to be changed unless the home has been completely removed from the market for 180 days, but real estate agents can also defeat these rules by either changing the Tax ID's of property listings, or in extreme cases by assigning completely new physical addresses to the homes. When the latter occurs, the DOMP will also be reset to zero, because the DOMP is permanently tied to these items, and our listing will now look like this: 0 DOMM and 0 DOMP. Buyers should be cautious when they encounter a home address such as 19 Alan Road in counties that require five digit, emergency vehicle (911) addresses.

While some would argue that this practice makes no difference, they are incorrect, because just listed homes command premium prices, and a potential buyer would be highly reluctant to challenge the $340,000 price of a home that had been on the market for less than 30 days. Potential homebuyers frequently request to see the newest listings, and in this case, they would be deceived if they were shown this house. Additionally, someone truly aware of this home's time on the market would most likely offer significantly less money, such as $320,000, and would most likely be able to successfully purchase the home at that price.

Housing Bubble Bloggers have largely been responsible for bringing deceptive sales practices such as these to the public's attention. And, for their actions, they have been attacked in the media and blamed by the REIC for causing panic and collapsing the housing market.

Today, this deceptive business practice is still being carried out by the REIC due to inaction by our Government to protect consumers, and the Bloggers are being heralded as the "New Media," because they are not hamstrung by the real or perceived ties that reporters in many newspaper companies have with their classified advertising departments, which receive huge amounts of revenue from the REIC.

While not all inclusive, because many excellent Housing Bubble Blogs exist, these are some of the most famous:

[7] Southern Maryland Housing Bubble News

[8] DC Bubble Meter

[9] Housing Panic

[10] Patrick.Net