What happens to my sale after it closes?
It becomes data. Your closed price is reported to the multiple listing service within two business days and reaches the public record through the recorded deed, and from there it prices your street.
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Within about a week your sale is the comparable that every agent and every appraiser working nearby will reach for. That is not marketing, it is the mechanism by which the market knows what anything is worth, and it is the reason a well-run sale matters to more people than just you.
It also means the number is not private, whatever route you sold by. The transfer tax appears on the recorded deed and the price can be worked out from it, so a sale handled quietly still produces a public figure.
What can I actually keep private?
Less than most sellers hope, and more than they fear. You can keep the address and the listing off the internet if you ask in writing. You cannot opt out of the closed sale being reported.
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| What | Can you keep it private? |
|---|---|
| Your listing on public websites | Yes, by written instruction |
| Your address on those websites | Yes, separately |
| Interior photographs in the listing | Yes, if you say so within two days of listing |
| The closed sale price | No |
| The recorded deed | No |
The distinction worth understanding: what is discretionary is display, and what is not is the record. Portals and agent websites can be told not to show your home. The multiple listing service still holds the sale, and the county still records the deed.
Every one of the private options has to be asked for, and most of them at the beginning rather than at the end. If any of this matters to you, say so before the listing goes live.
What happens to the photographs of my home?
They stay. The images given to the multiple listing service carry a permanent licence that does not end when your escrow does, and they cannot be removed once the listing has closed.
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This is the part sellers are most often surprised by, and it is worth knowing before the shoot rather than after. Photographs of your interior, taken while you lived there, remain in the record and can continue to be displayed. There is no mechanism to withdraw them afterwards.
The one window is at the start. A written instruction that photographs of the property not appear has to reach the multiple listing service within two days of the listing being entered. It comes up most often with sellers who are well known or who simply do not want the inside of their home on the internet permanently.
Why did I get a just sold card from an agent who never sold anything here?
Because a card saying an agent is active in your neighbourhood is not the same as a card saying they sold a house. Only the listing broker and the buyer's broker may claim a sale.
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The rule is simple and the marketing around it is not. A sale can only be advertised as sold once it has actually closed, and only by the two brokerages that were in it. What a third agent may do is advertise nearby activity, and a card designed to blur the two is a common thing to receive.
How to tell the difference in about five seconds: look for whose name is next to the word sold, and whether the card says sold BY them or sold IN your area. Every legitimate card carries the licence identification number of every agent named on it, and one that does not is worth ignoring on those grounds alone.
What can a just sold mailer never say?
Anything that describes who a neighbourhood is for. That covers the words, the images and the people in them, and it applies to every mailer that lands on your doormat.
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Fair housing reaches marketing, not just transactions, so a card cannot signal a preference about who should live somewhere, and that includes doing it through photography or through implication rather than words. It is one of the few areas where the rules are strict, well enforced and genuinely worth having.
It is also a fair way to judge who is working your street. Marketing that describes a neighbourhood by the kind of person who lives there, rather than by what is actually there, tells you something about the people sending it.
How should I read a top producer or record claim?
Ask what it counts and over what period. A claim is only as good as the data behind it, and most of them are technically true and carefully scoped.
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Number one is a claim that needs three things before it means anything: number one at what, among whom, and measured over which period. Number one by units in one office over one quarter and number one by volume in a county over a year are very different statements that look identical on a postcard.
Our own view, stated plainly because it applies to us too: the useful question is not who is number one. It is whether the person has sold homes like yours, recently, near you. Ask for that list. Anybody who is any good will have it and will be glad to be asked.
What does a sold sign down the street actually tell me?
Less than you would think until the sale closes and the price reports. A sign goes up at acceptance, and roughly one in twenty of those does not complete.
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The gap between a sold sign and a closed sale is usually a month, and during that month the number is unknown to everyone except the parties. Neighbours who adjust their expectations from a sign are working on the asking price, which may be nothing like where it lands.
What you want is the closed figure and the terms next to it: what it asked, what it got, how long it took, and whether the seller paid anything toward the buyer's costs. That combination tells you what your own home is worth. A sign tells you somebody made an offer.
Where can I see what TEAMIRI has actually sold?
On our sold portfolio, with the closed prices next to them, which is the only version of this worth showing anyone.
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We would rather be judged on closed sales in the areas we actually work than on a production number, because volume tells you somebody is busy and a closed list tells you whether they are busy doing the thing you need. Look for homes near yours, at your price, sold recently.
If you want the version specific to your street rather than the highlights, ask. A list of what has closed in your tract in the last six months, with the terms attached, is more useful to you than anything on a postcard and takes us about ten minutes to produce.
FAQs
Common questions about Just Sold Highlights
Is my sale price private after closing?
No. Your closed price is reported to the multiple listing service within two business days and the recorded deed carries the transfer tax, from which the price can be calculated. A sale handled quietly still produces a public figure, which surprises sellers who chose a private route specifically to avoid it.
Can I keep my address off the internet?
Yes, by written instruction, and the listing and the address can be handled separately. What you cannot opt out of is the closed sale being reported to the multiple listing service or the deed being recorded. Display is discretionary; the record is not. Ask at the start rather than at the end.
Can I have the photographs taken down after the sale?
No. Images given to the multiple listing service carry a permanent licence that does not end when escrow does, and there is no mechanism to withdraw them afterwards. The only window is at the beginning: a written instruction within two days of the listing being entered keeps them out in the first place.
Why do I get just sold cards from agents who did not sell the house?
Because advertising activity in your area is not the same as claiming a sale, and cards are often designed to blur the two. Only the listing broker and the buyer's broker may say they sold it. Check whose name sits next to the word sold, and whether it says sold by them or sold in your area.
When can a sale be advertised as sold?
Only once it has actually closed, not at acceptance. Until then the listing is pending, with no price and no terms published. That is why a sold sign in a garden and a sold card in the post can be a month apart, and why the sign tells you much less than the card does.
What has to appear on a just sold postcard?
The licence identification number of every agent named on it, because it counts as solicitation material. A card without one is worth disregarding on that basis alone, and it is the quickest single check you can make on anything that arrives in your post.
What can a mailer never say about my neighbourhood?
Anything indicating a preference about who should live there, and that covers the images and the implication as well as the words. Fair housing reaches marketing rather than just transactions. Marketing that describes an area by the kind of person who lives there tells you something about who sent it.
How should I judge a number one or top producer claim?
Ask number one at what, among whom, and over what period. Number one by units in one office in a quarter and number one by volume in a county over a year look identical on a postcard and mean very different things. The more useful question is whether they have sold homes like yours, recently, near you.
Does a sold sign down the street tell me what my home is worth?
Not yet. The sign goes up at acceptance and roughly one in twenty of those does not complete, and the price stays unknown until closing. What you want is the closed figure with its terms: what it asked, what it got, how long it took and whether the seller paid toward the buyer's costs.
Where can I see what you have sold?
On our sold portfolio, with closed prices attached. We would rather be judged on that than on a production number, because volume says somebody is busy and a closed list says whether they are busy doing the thing you need. Ask and we will pull what has closed in your own tract in the last six months.