A change in how MLS-PIN records pending sales, which took effect last month, has rendered the Massachusetts Association of Realtors’ (MAR) most recent monthly count of pendings inaccurate.  

The change, which affected approximately 4,800 listings, increased the number of listings designated as "under agreement" by MAR, resulting in a count of more than 9,000 pending single family home sales in May. Pending counts for prior months, however, were not upwardly revised to reflect the new method. The 4,944 pending sales recorded in May 2012 were tabulated under the old system, meaning that the 83.6 percent year-over-year increase in pending sales announced by MAR yesterday is inaccurate. It is not yet clear what the actual year-over-year increase would be.

MLS PIN’s policy has always been that any listing which is under agreement be designated as such in their system by agents, said Kathy Condon, president and CEO of MLS PIN. However, in the current seller’s market, many properties which are nominally under agreement may still be accepting back-up offers. MLS PIN found that many agents were designating such properties as "active, with a flag" with the particular circumstances explained in comments visible to other agents looking up the listing.

"We found it was being misused, so the board decided it was going to do away with that status," said Condon.  

Public-facing sites such as Zillow and Trulia, as well as many software vendors who compile real estate statistics, do not take into account internal agents’ comments when updating their databases. As a result, many properties which were under agreement could still be found on public sites and were still counted as "active" listings in stats. This often frustrated consumers who sought information on a house only to find it was no longer for sale.

In April, MLS PIN gave brokers 30 days’ notice to switch any of their active-with-flag listings to pending going forward, and last month it made a final review of its database to correct any remaining errors. It also notified third-party vendors who compile sales stats of the change.

The vendor who performs this service for MAR, Minnesota-based 10K Research and Marketing, was aware of the switch and accounted for it when compiling the May 2013 data, sources at the firm said. The May 2012 data was not similarly revised.

Eric Berman, spokesman for MAR, said he had contacted 10K about the change and discussed it with them and had believed that the prior year data reported as "under agreement" accurately reflected all off-market listings, including those designated as "active with flag." 10K says this was not the case.  

Condon said it would not be possible for MLS PIN to re-tabulate the old listings under the new method, since the problematic "active with flag" option had been eliminated from the database. 10K is working to come up with a new estimate of prior pending sales, the firm said, and hopes to revise the report by the end of the week.