This is an estimate for planning. It is not a quote, an appraisal, an offer, a loan offer, or tax or legal advice, and Rudy is a real estate agent, not a lender or tax professional.
The five paths, in plain English
Open-market listing
A full listing goes into the MLS and out to the public search sites, backed by photos, showings and open houses. All buyers and their agents learn of it at once.
When owners often choose it: Suited to a seller who wants the largest pool of buyers and the clearest test of price, with time to spare for prep, showings and escrow.
Tradeoffs: Showings increase, and the price history is visible to the public. Prep spending lands before the sale. In most cases escrow lasts 30 to 45 days from the moment you accept an offer, and once buyers have inspected, they might ask you for repairs or credits.
Pre-market or Coming Soon
A limited group of buyers sees the home first, ahead of a public launch or as a substitute for it. Three formats exist: Coming Soon, a delayed-marketing listing, and office-only, which stays within one brokerage.
When owners often choose it: Fits when privacy, a say over timing and showings, or flexible terms such as a later move-out date outrank reaching every buyer.
Tradeoffs: Fewer eyes on the home can produce fewer offers to compare and a less complete read on price. The Coming Soon window is 21 days at most in CRMLS and 30 in SDMLS, no in-person showings are allowed, and you sign a form beforehand. Per Zillow, a home publicly marketed but missing from the MLS after one business day is left off Zillow and Trulia during that listing agreement.
As-is or cash offer
A buyer paying in cash takes the house exactly as it is, often after only a single walkthrough. Enter an offer you hold, and the column calculates from it.
When owners often choose it: Right for a seller who cares most about speed, a short list of contingencies, or not having to make repairs or host showings.
Tradeoffs: Cash prices often sit below open-market value, the trade for speed and certainty, and offers differ from buyer to buyer. See which costs each buyer covers and which fall to you. A cash closing takes 1 to 3 weeks in many cases, and each buyer sets the exact timing.
Rent it out, sell later
You move, rent the house to a tenant, and sell at the end of a period you pick.
When owners often choose it: A good option when the rent could take care of much of the monthly cost, selling later fits the plan, or you might come back to San Clemente.
Tradeoffs: Plan for management, whether you hire a manager or handle it yourself, and set aside money for repairs and for vacant stretches between leases. Local rent and notice rules apply. Renting for a long stretch has a tax side too: the federal home-sale exclusion asks for at least 2 years of both owning and living in the home within the 5 years before you sell. Check with your CPA.
Keep the home
You remain in the home and keep owning it. Since nothing sells, selling costs today are zero.
When owners often choose it: Right for owners whose home still serves their plans, whose loan terms are worth keeping, or who have no move date yet.
Tradeoffs: Equity remains in the property, not in cash. The loan, tax, insurance and upkeep bills keep coming. The market will set future value, which is why the growth rate is your own estimate, not a forecast.
Pre-market and coming-soon sales: the rules
Who sets the rules for marketing a home quietly or early? NAR sets national policy, the MLS and the brokerage add theirs, and portals such as Zillow keep their own standards.
Nationally, NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy is still in place. Email blasts, public websites, flyers, yard signs and networks spanning several brokerages all count as public marketing, and once a home gets any of them, its listing broker has to enter it in the MLS inside a single business day. On top of that, NAR’s Multiple Listing Options for Sellers, a policy in force since March 25, 2025, adds two choices beyond the full public listing. The first, delayed marketing, gives other MLS agents a look at the home, while public home-search sites can’t show it until a period chosen by the MLS has passed. The second, office-only, is lodged with the MLS but hidden from agents at other brokerages and not promoted to the public. Each one requires a seller disclosure, signed first.
For readers in San Clemente: this is Orange County, and the MLS here is CRMLS. San Diego County homes can be listed through SDMLS or CRMLS, and the rules differ, so both are summarized below, CRMLS first.
CRMLS: a Coming Soon listing may run up to 21 days and then becomes Active. It allows no showings of any kind, and advertising must label it Coming Soon. Normally these listings are sent to IDX feeds and to portals including Realtor.com and Homes.com, and a 2026 seller form is available to keep them out of IDX. There’s no return to Coming Soon for a listing that has left it. CRMLS does not offer delayed marketing. CRMLS also says a listing must be entered in the MLS before it can be marketed publicly beyond its own brokerage.
SDMLS: a Coming Soon listing may run up to 30 days. Agents across the MLS have access to it, and the seller is allowed to advertise and to say yes to an offer, though there are no in-person tours or open houses. Public portals don’t get it, and neither do IDX feeds, which carry listings onto other brokers’ websites. An Active listing can’t go back to Coming Soon. As for NAR’s delayed-marketing choice, SDMLS treats it as an Active listing that stays offline, open to in-person showings and free of any time limit.
In California, the seller’s MLS choices are documented on the C.A.R. MLSA, or Multiple Listing Service Addendum, which got a revision in September 2025. An MLS can require one more form of its own. NAR’s disclosure confirms the seller sees the trade, for instance giving up the broad, instant reach the MLS offers buyers.
Then there’s Zillow. Its Listing Access Standards state that a home publicly marketed but missing from the MLS after one business day won’t appear on either Zillow or Trulia during the life of the listing agreement. If a home isn’t publicly marketed, Zillow also requests a seller-signed waiver laying out the drawbacks.
Since 2025 these rules have changed several times, and brokerages may keep their own policies. Rudy will confirm the MLS and the current rules for your address and timeline.
Rules as of 2026-10-30. Sources: NAR: Multiple Listing Options for Sellers; NAR: MLS Clear Cooperation Policy (Policy Statement 8.0); NAR: Multiple Listing Options for Sellers FAQ (May 27, 2025); NAR: Office Exclusive Listings, Pre-Marketing Guidance; SDMLS: DMEL & DMLE: What’s the Difference? (Coming Soon Status, revised July 2026); SDMLS: The SELM Is a Discontinued Form (use the C.A.R. MLSA); CRMLS: Coming Soon Status; CRMLS: Limited Exposure for Coming Soon FAQs; CRMLS: C.A.R. Form MLSA (Multiple Listing Service Addendum) FAQs; Zillow: Listing Access Standards (PDF). Your agent will confirm what applies to your home.
About these numbers
- Read the results as estimates for planning, based only on your entries. They aren’t appraisals, offers or forecasts.
- The commission rate is negotiable and set by your listing agreement. Selling costs follow whatever rates you entered.
- Holding costs build every month until closing: property tax, insurance and HOA dues, plus whatever interest your loan charges.
- Money received at closing isn’t directly comparable to money received years later. The rent and keep figures exclude income tax, depreciation and returns your cash could earn in the meantime.
- No tax on the gain is figured in. Review the home-sale exclusion with a CPA, most importantly if the house turns into a rental before the sale.
Questions owners ask
Why doesn’t the cash column assume a discount?
Offers differ from buyer to buyer, so the tool doesn’t build one in. You type a real offer or a test figure, and until you do, the column has nothing to show. Many cash offers land under open-market value as the price of speed and certainty, so the fair comparison is an actual number set against the listing columns.
Is the yearly growth rate a forecast?
No. It’s your own assumption about how the home’s value might change each year. Future value depends on the market, so run a few rates, 0% among them, and watch how the rent and keep columns respond.
What goes into holding costs?
The tool takes the interest on your loan, adds property tax, insurance and HOA dues, then repeats that for each month you wait to close. Every month of prep, market time and escrow is counted, and escrow by itself is normally a 30- to 45-day stretch after you accept an offer.
How do the two MLSs handle Coming Soon?
Orange County homes are listed in CRMLS, which caps Coming Soon at 21 days, rules out showings of every kind, and usually passes the listing along to Homes.com, Realtor.com and comparable portals. SDMLS gives Coming Soon as long as 30 days, without in-person showings, and doesn’t send it to IDX feeds or public portals. In both, a listing that has moved to Active can’t go back to Coming Soon.
Does the rent column count income tax?
No. It counts your property tax, insurance and HOA dues, but it leaves out income tax and depreciation, and it doesn’t count what your cash might earn elsewhere. Years of renting can also change your federal home-sale exclusion, which can cover up to $250,000 of gain for one filer or $500,000 on a joint return, provided you owned the home and lived there for at least 2 years during the 5 before selling. A CPA can help you sort it out.
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