The RMLS number cannot tell you the absolute listing date but it can give you a pretty good idea. All RMLS numbers are seven digits and are assigned in order. The first number designates the last number of the year. 2006 started with a six. 2007 starts with a seven.
The last listing for 2006: 6109235
The first listing for 2007: 7000006
Although knowing the year is good, most people will want to be more specific. As a rough indicator, if one was to divide the RMLS of a specific property by the last RMLS for the year, would this not give a ROUGH indicator of when during the year it was listed?
For example, if there was a property with RMLS of 6054617, one could:
– Drop the “6”, representing the year, to get the number “054617”.
– Take the last RMLS for the year (6109235), drop the “6” to get “109235”.
– Divide “054617” by “109235”, which gives a result of 0.5
– So the property was likely listed somewhere around half-way throught the year. Of course RMLS numbers are not generated at a constant rate through the year (there are highs and lows), but as a rough indicator…
For the current year one could divide the RMLS number (less the “6”) by the latest RMLS number (less the “6”) to get how far throught the year to date it was listed.
Hope this makes sense.