Search Tech Tips

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Find all listings that were Active (at least once) within a specified period in the past
Off Market Cutoff Date and Days on Market (DOM)
Save Specific Preferred Listings
Search Expired Listings
Search Overview Tutorial

Find all listings that were Active (at least once) within a specified period in the past (regardless of current status) 

Since Status always indicates the current status of a listing, searching for Status = Active only produces listings that are currently active. A listing's status may change from Active to other statuses (such as contingent, pending or withdrawn) and back to Active (or to sold, expired or other status) during any period of time. Therefore, to find all listings that were Active (at least once) within a specified period in the past (regardless of current status), include the following criteria in your Search criteria: 

  1. Use an Entry Date on or BEFORE the END of the specified period
  2. Enter a Status Date on "or AFTER" the BEGINNING of the specified date.

You can then select Summary Statistics in CTI Navigator's Search Criteria Options menu to see automatically calculated days on market, average, median and dollar volume values of the properties that match those search criteria.

Off Market Cutoff Date and Days on Market (DOM)

A listing is considered off the market once its status is changed to any status other than Active. Hence the "Off Market Cutoff Date" varies by status - it is the Close Date for SOLDS or Withdrawns, the Contract Date (or Effective Date) for Pending and Contingents, the Expiration Date for Expireds, but today's date for Actives. If you need to include both Active and Sold or Expired results in the same search, use the Off Market Cutoff Date instead of Close Date in your search criteria.

"Days on Market" (DOM) indicates the number of days a listing was available for purchase. Because a listing is not available for purchase in the time period between its Contract Date (see note below) and the Close Date, its DOM ends on the Contract Date (not the Close Date. Therefore the DOM for Contingent, Pending and SOLD listings is calculated in CTI Navigator as the number of days between the List Date and the Contract Date (excluding the days until a contracted sale actually closes). Of course, DOM for Withdrawn and Expireds is from List Date to date withdrawn or expired respectively. DOM for Actives is from List Date to today's date.

In preparing market reports, note that the Days On Market for SOLD properties ends on the Contract Date, not on the Off Market Cutoff or Close Date (which can be several months after the Contract Date). To see only SOLD properties that were contracted (not necessarily closed) during a particular time period, use the Contract Date rather than Off Market Cutoff Date in your search criteria.

To easily see the time periods involved for Sold properties, you can add List Date, Contract Date, Close Date, and Off Market Date columns to your search results table and then sort by Contract Date. Note that the DOM for these listings will exactly match the number of days between their List Date and Contract Date. The average DOM for these listings will be shown on any standard report on which you enable "Show CMA Statistics." These statistics only apply to these specific listing numbers.

To use your computer to calculate the number of days between the List Data and Close Date, you first add columns with the date information to your search results table. (For repeated use, save the search results table format.) Then export this table from CTI Navigator and import it into a spreadsheet that you setup to calculate the differences and any other statistics for you. Be sure to use the date format for the cells in the spreadsheet containing dates.

Note: If you do not have Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program, there are several free spreadsheet programs available (such as  Apache OpenOffice Calc , Google Docs, Excel Online, Kingsoft Spreedsheets, Zoho Sheet) .

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Search Expired Listings

To view expired listings other than your own, always use "Status Date" instead of "Expiration Date" in your search criteria. If you use Expiration Date, you will get only your own listings that have expired in the date range specified. 

The general guidelines for searching  EXPIRED listings are:

  1. Searching Expired Status in Search Listings will only find listings that have already expired in the past. Agents cannot search future expiration dates for listings that are not their own (see #5 below to search your own listings).
  2. "Expiration Date" is always restricted to be searchable only for your own listings (past or future). 
  3. Use "Status Date" (not "Expiration Date") to search for any listings that have already expired during a specified time period.
  4. You do not need to specify detailed criteria. Instead of selecting Search Listings, you can select Hot Sheet on the Home Page > set the appropriate Days Back or Date Range > check only Expired (uncheck all other statuses) > click the "Show Selected" Button at the bottom of the Hotsheet criteria.
  5. The Expiration Report under Reports in Navigator's top menu-bar specifically searches only your listings for upcoming expirations.

Save Specific Preferred Listing(s)

Saved Searches save criteria - not individual listings - since which properties match the search criteria can and usually do vary over time. However, you can use MLS# as a search criterion and save that search so that only the specified listings appear in search results. To do so, perform a normal search, view the search results, and select the specific properties of interest. Print the table or report that includes the MLS number for the selected listings. Then open a new search screen, manually enter the specific listing numbers, separated by comma, in the Listing Number box, and set the "Listing Number" modifier to "Equal". You can save that search, with or without selecting any other criteria, and you can associate it with one or more clients.

It also is possible (but not normally recommended) to save specific listings in your client's preferences in CTI Navigator's Client database and use that information later to view reports on those specific listings in several ways. The Client Information database includes a designated "MLS number" field under "Client's Preferences". You can enter a long string of preferred MLS numbers, each separated by a comma, in this field. Your entries will automatically scroll well beyond the small visible part of the entry box as you type. You also can save a client's preferred MLS numbers and/or text links to reports for their preferred listings in the Comments field of the Client Information. Both of these approaches store text data and not active hyperlink codes. Therefore, just clicking on them will not automatically pop-up a report.

If you save just the preferred MLS#s, you can highlight and use the keyboard copy command (Ctrl+C in Windows or Command+C in Mac) to copy those numbers out of the Client Information field you used (Preferences or Comments). Then you can paste the MLS number or string of numbers either in "Quick Find" by MLS# on the Home page, or in "Find by Listing# "under Search in the frame menu. Then you can produce reports for these properties.

Another approach is to use the Email function to create a text link to the reports for a client's preferred listings, and then copy and save that link in the Comments field of the Client information. When you open Client Manager you then can select your client, click the button to "Edit Client Info", highlight and copy (Ctrl+C) the saved text link, and paste that link in your browser. This will display the report you saved (which can contain any number of "preferred " listings). If you like, you can create a Clients folder and save these specific MLS report links in your browser's Favorites/Bookmarks.

Your clients also can save specific listings themselves on your MLS sponsored Agent website. After signing in, clients can simply display a listing from any search or saved search, and then add it to their “My Favorites” list. When appropriate, this is perhaps the simplest approach to saving specific listings of special interest.


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To return to the Index of Tutorials for CTI Navigator II, click here.

 

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