Home Sellers Can Now Hide Days on Market and Price Changes. Should They?

Updated October 27, 2026.

Imagine you've had your home on the market for 90 days. You've reduced the asking price three times, and buyers are beginning to wonder why it hasn't sold.

Now imagine you could tell your real estate agent to stop displaying some of that history on public real estate websites.

Well, if you're selling a home in the Chicago area, you now have that option.

On April 29, 2026, Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), the multiple listing service used by real estate professionals throughout much of the Chicago region, announced new controls allowing sellers to restrict how certain listing information appears on third-party websites.

That includes two pieces of information buyers frequently look at: how long a home has been on the market and how many times its asking price has changed.

As a real estate broker, I find this interesting for a couple of reasons. On one hand, sellers have gained another tool for marketing their property. On the other, buyers may not be getting the same picture of a listing they were accustomed to seeing online.

And here's the important part: the information hasn't necessarily disappeared. It's just not always being shown to the public.

What Exactly Can Home Sellers Hide?

MRED introduced several seller-directed controls governing how listing information is displayed on public real estate websites.

The options go beyond simply hiding how long a home has been for sale.

These controls are available through MRED's listing system and can be selected individually according to the seller's preferences.

The options apply to how listing information is distributed and displayed outside the MLS. They do not automatically remove that information from the records available to real estate professionals.

Source: MRED's April 29, 2026 announcement and listing display controls documentation.

Does This Actually Delete the Days on Market or Price History?

No. And that's probably the most important distinction in this entire change.

MRED is not giving sellers a button that erases their property's marketing history.

Instead, sellers can instruct their listing agents to restrict certain information from appearing on public websites that receive listing data through the MLS.

The underlying listing records remain available within MRED.

That means a buyer working with a real estate agent can still ask that agent to review the available listing history, including market time and recorded price changes.

For someone browsing homes online without an agent, however, certain details may be missing.

And that difference matters.

There Are Limits to Hiding Price History

MRED clarified in September 2026 that choosing not to display price history does not necessarily remove every indication of a price reduction.

For example, imagine a home was originally listed for $500,000.

The seller then reduced the price to $490,000, followed by $480,000, and eventually $470,000.

Under the new display option, a public website may still show the original asking price, the current price, the most recent change and a price-reduction indicator.

What may be missing are the intermediate reductions.

The control also does not remove the price history from previous listings or information obtained through public records.

So a seller should not assume that selecting this option makes every previous asking price impossible to find.

Source: MRED, Control the Display of Your Listing's Price History on Public Consumer Sites, updated September 18, 2026.

What About Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and Other Real Estate Websites?

This is where things become a little less predictable.

MRED's controls are designed for public-facing real estate websites, including brokerage websites and larger listing portals that receive MLS information.

The industry generally refers to these public listing feeds as IDX, short for Internet Data Exchange. There are also password-protected real estate websites, known as VOW sites, that operate under separate MLS display rules.

For most buyers and sellers, the technical distinction isn't particularly important.

What matters is that information available to your real estate agent through the MLS may not be displayed the same way on a public real estate website.

MRED says websites receiving its listing data are required to follow applicable MLS display rules.

However, that doesn't guarantee every website will display a listing identically. Some websites may have historical data from other sources or may calculate certain information independently.

For that reason, I would not promise a seller that selecting these options will make days on market or price changes disappear from every website.

And I wouldn't advise a buyer to assume that a missing market-time figure means the home was just listed.

Why Would a Seller Want to Hide Days on Market?

There are a few reasons this might appeal to someone selling their home.

Let's start with how buyers sometimes interpret market time.

When a home first hits the market, it may receive considerable attention. Buyers who have been searching for weeks suddenly see something new, and there's a possibility that the property could attract multiple offers.

Now take that same home 90 days later.

Even if the property hasn't changed, buyers may look at it differently.

They might wonder whether something is wrong with the house, whether the seller is asking too much, or whether other buyers have already passed on it.

Those assumptions aren't always fair.

I've seen homes sit on the market for reasons that have very little to do with their condition. Sometimes the asking price is wrong. Sometimes the marketing misses the mark. Sometimes the timing is terrible. And occasionally a perfectly good property simply takes longer to find the right buyer.

But buyers don't always know the reason.

They just see the number.

Could Hiding Market Time Help the Seller Negotiate?

Potentially.

Consider a buyer looking at two similar homes.

One has been listed for four days. The other has been listed for 104 days.

Which seller would the buyer assume is more motivated?

Probably the one whose property has been sitting for more than three months.

And that assumption might influence the buyer's opening offer.

If the market-time information is absent from the public listing, the buyer may not immediately make that comparison.

That's a possible marketing and negotiating benefit for the seller.

But it's important to distinguish a potential benefit from a proven one. I haven't seen reliable evidence establishing that suppressing days on market consistently results in higher selling prices.

And an experienced buyer's agent can still investigate the history.

Why Would a Seller Hide Price Reductions?

Repeated price reductions can create a different kind of problem.

Imagine someone lists a home for $600,000.

After several weeks without an acceptable offer, the seller reduces it to $585,000. Then $570,000. Eventually, the asking price drops to $550,000.

A buyer looking at that sequence might conclude that the seller has been chasing the market downward.

They may also wonder whether another reduction is coming.

That can affect negotiating expectations before the buyer ever schedules a showing.

By restricting the public display of intermediate price changes, sellers may be able to reduce some of that negative attention.

But the current asking price still needs to make sense.

A $550,000 home doesn't become a $575,000 home simply because a website stops displaying its previous reductions.

Buyers ultimately compare the property with the other homes available to them, along with recent comparable sales.

Hiding a pricing history doesn't fix a pricing problem.

Are There Downsides for Sellers?

Absolutely. And I wouldn't recommend using these controls automatically just because they're available.

Buyers Might Wonder What's Being Hidden

Not every buyer will notice when days on market or price history is missing.

But some will.

A buyer who notices that one listing doesn't display the same information as other properties may become curious.

Instead of thinking the home is new, they might start wondering why the information isn't there.

And once that question comes up, hiding the information could work against the seller's intended marketing strategy.

The Buyer May Discover the History Anyway

If the buyer is represented by a real estate agent, the history may come up during the initial property review, while preparing an offer, or during negotiations.

That means any perceived advantage could be temporary.

I'd rather have a seller understand that possibility upfront than believe this is some kind of guaranteed negotiating shortcut.

It Doesn't Replace Proper Pricing

This is the bigger issue.

If a home is sitting on the market because it's overpriced, removing the market-time display doesn't change the competition.

Buyers still have alternatives.

If comparable homes are selling for $475,000 and your home is listed for $525,000, the public display of market time probably isn't the biggest obstacle to getting an offer.

The asking price is.

There is also a distinction between restricting individual pieces of information and restricting the listing's exposure altogether. Limiting where a home is advertised could affect how many buyers discover it.

Those are different marketing decisions, and they shouldn't be confused.

What Should Buyers Do When Listing History Is Missing?

For buyers, I think the lesson is fairly straightforward.

Don't rely exclusively on what you see on a public real estate website.

Sites like Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com and brokerage search websites can be useful for finding available homes, comparing prices and keeping track of new listings.

But the information displayed to consumers may not tell the entire story.

Before making an offer, ask your real estate agent to review the available MLS history.

Some of the questions worth asking include:

• How long has this home actually been available for sale?
• Has the listing been canceled, expired or relisted?
• What was the original asking price?
• Have there been price reductions or increases?
• Have there been previous listings for the property?
• How does the current asking price compare with recent sales and competing homes?

These questions aren't about finding ammunition to beat up the seller during negotiations.

They're about understanding the property and the market before deciding what you're willing to pay.

Days on Market Can Be Useful, but They Don't Tell You Everything

One mistake buyers make is assuming a home that's been listed for a long time must be a bargain waiting to happen.

Sometimes that's true. Sometimes it isn't.

A home may have been overpriced originally but is now priced appropriately after a reduction.

Another home might have been listed for only a few days but is already priced substantially above comparable properties.

The first could be a better buying opportunity than the second.

The point is to understand what the market is telling you rather than focus entirely on one number.

There's Another Difference Buyers Should Understand: Listing Market Time vs. Total Market Time

MRED has historically tracked more than one measure of market time.

Listing Market Time measures market exposure associated with a particular listing, according to the MLS's status and calculation rules.

Total Market Time provides a broader view of market exposure, including qualifying listing activity associated with the property.

Those numbers aren't necessarily identical.

For example, a seller might cancel a listing and later put the home back on the market under a new listing number.

The new listing may have a relatively short Listing Market Time, while the property's Total Market Time reflects additional prior exposure.

MRED's market-time guidance generally requires a property to remain off the market for at least 90 consecutive days before Total Market Time resets.

That means relisting a property doesn't automatically erase its broader market exposure from the MLS's calculations.

And it's one more reason buyers shouldn't assume the age of a particular online listing tells them exactly how long a home has been available.

Source: MRED market-time guidance.

Could This Change How Buyers Make Offers?

It could change what some buyers know before they speak with an agent, but the fundamentals of writing an offer haven't changed.

When evaluating a property, I look at more than the asking price.

I want to know what comparable homes have sold for, what competing homes are available, how long the property has been marketed, and whether its pricing or status has changed.

That information helps put the seller's asking price into context.

But it doesn't tell me exactly what the seller will accept.

Consider a home that's been on the market for 120 days.

One seller might be anxious to move and willing to negotiate substantially.

Another might be perfectly comfortable waiting for the right offer.

The number of days alone doesn't tell us which situation we're dealing with.

What changes under MRED's new options is that some buyers may not see the market-time information until their agent reviews the property.

That's why I think buyers should pay particular attention to listing history before making an offer, especially when considering a property that has undergone several changes.

Why Is MRED Making This Change?

MRED described its April 2026 update as a way to provide sellers and their agents with more control over how listings are marketed online.

In its announcement, MRED emphasized that the choices are made at the seller's direction and can be adjusted on individual listings.

But the bigger picture goes beyond Chicago.

Across the country, the real estate industry has been reconsidering how listings are marketed, when properties become publicly visible and how much control sellers should have over that process.

The National Association of Realtors adopted its Multiple Listing Options for Sellers policy in 2025, giving local MLS organizations flexibility to develop certain seller-directed marketing options.

Importantly, NAR's policy does not mean every MLS must adopt MRED's specific approach to hiding public market time or price changes.

MLS organizations operate under different local rules.

Other Markets Are Experimenting With Similar Options

Canopy MLS, which serves the Charlotte region and surrounding areas in North and South Carolina, introduced a Limited Exposure listing option in 2026.

Under that system, certain active listings can remain visible to MLS participants without being distributed to public websites. Days on market and price changes are handled differently during that period.

Canopy also acknowledged a limitation: outside websites may calculate their own days-on-market figures once a property becomes publicly available.

That example doesn't mean Canopy's system operates exactly like MRED's.

It does demonstrate that questions about market time, listing exposure and price-history visibility aren't limited to Illinois.

Sources: National Association of Realtors, Multiple Listing Options for Sellers; Canopy MLS Listing Visibility Guide; and Canopy's May 2026 market-time clarification.

Is This Good for Sellers or Bad for Buyers?

I don't think it's quite that simple.

There's a reasonable argument that sellers should have some control over how their homes are presented online.

A home that has been on the market for an extended period isn't necessarily defective, and a price reduction doesn't automatically mean a seller made a terrible decision.

Those numbers can create impressions that don't always reflect the property's actual value or condition.

But there's another side to that argument.

Days on market and pricing history help buyers evaluate properties. They provide context and may reveal how a seller's expectations have changed over time.

Removing that information from public view doesn't necessarily make the information less relevant.

It just makes it less accessible to someone who doesn't know where to look.

And that's the part I find most interesting.

We're living in a time when consumers can research almost everything themselves. They can look up property taxes, past sales, neighborhood information and competing listings without ever speaking to an agent.

Now, at least for certain listing details, some of that information may become less visible.

Whether that's ultimately beneficial depends on how sellers use these options and how accurately buyers understand what they're seeing.

My Advice for Sellers Considering These Options

I'd treat them as marketing decisions, not automatic improvements.

If your home has been listed for several months, it's worth discussing whether restricting public market time could change how prospective buyers initially perceive the property.

The same goes for a listing that has undergone several price reductions.

But I would also want to understand why the home hasn't sold.

Is the price competitive? Are the photos and presentation helping? Is the property being exposed to the right buyers? Are there condition issues? What are comparable homes doing?

Those questions matter more than whether a website displays 15 days or 115 days.

And remember, your real estate agent isn't necessarily hiding this information from other agents. The available records remain inside MRED.

So if the objective is to make the property more attractive to serious buyers, I would concentrate first on pricing, presentation and market conditions.

Then decide whether any of the new display controls make sense as part of the overall marketing plan.

The Bottom Line

Home sellers around Chicago now have more control over what the public sees when viewing their listings online.

That's a meaningful change, especially for properties with extended market time or multiple price reductions.

For sellers, these options may offer additional flexibility in how a home is presented.

For buyers, they create one more reason not to assume that every public listing website contains the complete marketing history of a property.

And for both sides, the underlying real estate fundamentals still matter.

A home's value is determined by what buyers are willing to pay in the market, not by whether a website displays its previous asking prices.

You can change what buyers see online. You can't change what the market thinks your home is worth simply by hiding a number.