What is days-on-market on a listing?
Days-on-market is a count the multiple listing service keeps for each listing under that MLS's own rules; no Virginia statute or regulation read defines it. The SWVAR MLS, whose service area includes Carroll, Grayson, Wythe and Galax, sets when a listing must go Active and requires 30 consecutive days off the market before the same agent enters a property as a new listing, but publishes no counting formula.
An MLS keeps the day count, and no Virginia statute read defines it
The number belongs to the multiple listing service. It is not written into the Code of Virginia or the Real Estate Board's regulations; nothing read for this page defines it, so what it means on a given listing depends on the MLS that holds the listing.
One rulebook that reaches this footprint is the Southwest Virginia Association of REALTORS MLS quick reference. It defines the SWVAR service area as Washington, Smyth, Russell, Bland, Buchanan, Wythe, Grayson, Carroll and Tazewell counties and the cities of Bristol, Wise, Norton and Galax, and it makes placing all required listings in that area in Navica, the system it names, mandatory. Pulaski, Montgomery and Floyd are not on its list.
The picture is not tidy. The New River Valley Association of REALTORS names a service area that overlaps SWVAR's and also takes in Pulaski, Montgomery and Floyd. No source read says which MLS a given listing in the overlap sits in; the listing agent on that property knows.
The quick reference prints only two rules on the count itself: a relisting rule under its heading on managing the count, and a separate warning about long-withdrawn listings. Both are covered below. What it does not contain is a formula: no written method for counting days, and none for counting cumulative days across more than one listing of the same property.
Active within two business days of ratification, and the statuses around it
The quick reference does not say which date starts the count. It does set a deadline for the moment a listing must be live in the system, and it defines the statuses a listing moves through after that, Temporarily Withdrawn, Withdrawn and Expired among them.
Under its definition of Active, the quick reference says a listing must be Active in the MLS within two business days of the seller's ratification of the listing agreement, or within one business day of public marketing, whichever comes first. After that, a change of status goes into the MLS within 2 business days, except that a ratified contract with contingencies has to show as Active Contingency within one business day.
How time spent in Temporarily Withdrawn is treated in the count is not in the quick reference. For how a status appears on a public listing card, see Bowman Real Estate's current listings.
Thirty days off before relisting, and why a long-withdrawn listing is not revived
The two rules the quick reference does print are both about keeping the count honest when a property leaves the market and returns.
Thirty consecutive days off
A property must be off the market for 30 consecutive calendar days before it can be entered in the MLS as a new listing by the same agent.
A new agreement, not an extension
Relisting as new takes a new signed listing agreement. Extending the old one does not qualify.
No reviving old listings
Properties withdrawn from the market for years should not simply be brought back, because doing so leaves the day count wrong.
SWVAR explains why it cares. It tells members that if incorrect data is used, the CMAs and appraisals everyone relies on may be jeopardized. A comparative market analysis built on listings whose day counts are wrong reads the market wrong. An appraisal is a licensed appraiser's work, but it draws on the same records.
Lowering the price is a different move from withdrawing and relisting, and the quick reference has no rule on it; whether a price drop hurts a listing takes that up. The quick reference file carries a 2024 date, so confirm the current rules with SWVAR before leaning on either one.
A different MLS's cumulative rule shows the count is set locally
The clearest evidence that no single definition exists is to read another MLS's rule beside this one.
Bright MLS, which is not the SWVAR MLS, defines its cumulative figure as the sum of the day counts for multiple listings of one property when 61 days or less pass between the end of one listing and the start of the next. That is Bright's rule for Bright's records. The SWVAR quick reference has no equivalent, which is why the exact method here is a question for SWVAR itself at (276) 623-1252.
Public figures raise the same caution. Virginia REALTORS computes a median day count for home sales by county and city, but its July 2026 report shows the local values only in a map figure, so no county number can be quoted from it. Where to find real market data for Southwest Virginia goes through what each public source does and does not cover.
Trying to make sense of the day count on a listing's history?
Send Lowell the property and what the record shows about when it went on and off the market. He will explain what the MLS statuses mean for that listing and what the record cannot tell you. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions this raises
Is the day count the same thing as the length of the listing agreement?
No. The agreement's term is a matter of contract: Va. Code 54.1-2137 requires a brokerage agreement to be in writing with a definite termination date, and one that does not specify a date terminates 90 days after its date. The day count is the MLS's record of the listing, kept under the MLS's own rules, and the SWVAR quick reference prints no formula for it.
Does time spent Temporarily Withdrawn add to the count?
The SWVAR MLS quick reference does not say. It defines Temporarily Withdrawn as off the market for a set period and not available for showings, with the listing agreement still in effect, but it prints no formula for counting days. The Southwest Virginia Association of REALTORS can say how its system handles that period.
Which MLS holds listings in Pulaski, Montgomery and Floyd counties?
No source read settles it. The SWVAR MLS quick reference does not name those three counties in its service area, while the New River Valley Association of REALTORS states that it serves them along with several others. The listing agent on a particular property can say which MLS the listing is in, and that MLS's rules govern its count.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- MLS Quick Reference Handout (service area, status definitions, managing the day count) Southwest Virginia Association of REALTORS
- Association home page (service area) New River Valley Association of REALTORS
- Cumulative days-on-market help article Bright MLS
- Virginia Home Sales Report, July 2026 (Figure 10) Virginia REALTORS
- Va. Code 54.1-2137, commencement and termination of brokerage relationships Virginia General Assembly