Doorify MLS just made a meaningful change to how Coming Soon works: Days on Market no longer accumulate during the pre-showing period. For Marti Hampton, that is a new rule attached to a strategy she has been developing for more than a decade.

If you've bought or sold a home in recent years, you've probably seen a listing marked Coming Soon — visible in the MLS and participating home-search sites, but not yet available for showings.

A Coming Soon status can simply be a label. Marti Hampton has spent more than a decade treating that period as part of the listing strategy.

That distinction just became more useful.

In July 2026, Doorify MLS changed how Coming Soon affects Days on Market. Under the current rules, a listing can remain in Coming Soon for up to 14 calendar days. Showings and open houses are prohibited during that period, but DOM does not accumulate. Doorify describes the status as appropriate when a property is being prepared for market and the seller wants to begin advertising before public showings start.

That is a significant shift from Doorify's guidance as recently as September 2025. At that time, Coming Soon listings could remain in that status for up to 30 days, and Doorify specifically stated that Days on Market counted during the Coming Soon period.

For sellers, that changes an important part of the calculation.

Previously, the opportunity to build awareness before showings came with accumulating DOM.

Now the better question is:

What should actually happen during those days before buyers walk through the door?

Think of It Like a Movie Premiere

Marti has long compared the Coming Soon period to the way a movie is launched.

A studio doesn't wait until opening night to tell people the movie exists.

The marketing comes first.

Trailers are released. Previews appear. Media begins circulating. People hear about the movie, see enough to become interested and know when opening night is coming.

Then the doors open.

Marti believes a home launch deserves the same kind of thinking.

The first day buyers can walk through a property shouldn't also have to be the first day the market begins hearing about it.

The Coming Soon period creates an opportunity to begin that introduction earlier.

Photography and video can be completed. Pricing and positioning can be finalized. Marketing assets can be built. Buyers and agents can learn that the property is coming and when showings will begin.

Then comes the home's version of opening night: its market debut and first showings.

The point isn't to keep buyers waiting.

It's to arrive at launch with an audience already paying attention.

And just as a great trailer can't compensate for a movie people don't want to see, Coming Soon can't compensate for a home that isn't properly prepared, positioned or priced.

Preparation still comes first.

That principle runs throughout Marti's listing philosophy: the work that influences the outcome begins before the listing goes live.

Marti Built a System Around the Idea

Marti founded Coming Soon Homes® in 2014. The platform was later recognized as an Inman Innovator of the Year finalist in 2016.

But the innovation wasn't simply creating another place to advertise homes.

It was building a repeatable system around the period before the market debut.

Finish the house.

Prepare the presentation.

Establish the price and position.

Build the marketing.

Begin attracting attention.

Then open the doors.

Doorify's July 2026 change didn't create that philosophy.

It changed one of the mechanics surrounding it.

Seven Extra Days, Zero DOM Cost

Consider a home that needs another week before it is ready for buyers.

Under Doorify's current rules, those seven days can now occur in Coming Soon without adding seven days to the listing's DOM.

That makes the pre-showing period more usable than it was under Doorify's previous rules.

But the other side of the equation hasn't disappeared.

Buyers still cannot tour the property while it is Coming Soon. Open houses aren't permitted. And Coming Soon is available only as the initial listing status, for a maximum of 14 calendar days.

So the change doesn't mean every seller should automatically use all 14 days.

Fourteen days is a ceiling, not a target.

A property that is completely prepared and ready for buyers may need a shorter runway. Another may still need time to finish staging, photography or other launch preparation.

The time needs a purpose.

The Pre-Launch Checklist

The details depend on the property, the seller and the market.

But a deliberate pre-showing period can create time to do several things well.

Finish the property before buyers judge it

Final repairs, staging and presentation decisions are better handled before buyers begin forming opinions.

The first showing shouldn't also be the final walkthrough for the marketing team.

Build the marketing before the launch

Photography. Video. Floor plans. Listing copy. Social and digital assets.

The movie trailer shouldn't arrive after opening night.

A property should enter its showing period with the marketing ready to support it.

Confirm price and position

Price doesn't exist in isolation.

A home's position depends on competing inventory, recent sales, condition and what buyers are responding to in the current market.

That analysis belongs before launch.

Begin creating awareness

The buyer most interested in a property may not happen to discover it the morning it becomes Active.

Coming Soon creates a defined period in which buyers and agents can learn that a home is approaching its showing date.

That doesn't require stretching every listing to 14 days.

It requires enough time to execute the launch properly.

Marti Was Saying This in 2022

There is a useful record of Marti explaining this thinking years before Doorify adopted its current DOM treatment.

In 2022, Marti sat down with real estate leader Amy Wienands for a conversation about Coming Soon and what sellers should expect from the agents representing them.

Amy described first hearing Marti present the Coming Soon concept at a real estate mastermind. The idea resonated because Amy had already been questioning something about the traditional listing process.

A home could go active, receive one or two showings, get an offer and sell quickly.

But had enough of the market actually had an opportunity to respond?

Hearing Marti explain Coming Soon gave Amy a different way to think about the launch.

Marti put the underlying idea simply:

"You've got to get their full attention."

Recorded in 2022, the conversation explores market exposure, seller representation and the thinking behind building attention before showings begin.

The timing matters.

Marti wasn't predicting Doorify's 2026 rule change.

What the conversation documents is something more useful: the philosophy was already established.

Build awareness before the market debut. Give the property a deliberate launch. Create options for the seller. Don't assume the first available offer is automatically the best possible outcome.

The MLS rules have changed.

The reasoning behind the strategy came much earlier.

"Slow Down"

Later in the same conversation, Marti comes back to another idea:

"Slow down."

That principle reaches beyond Coming Soon.

Marti's point is that an agent's responsibility isn't to reach the next commission check as quickly as possible. It is to give the seller the time, information and options needed to make a sound decision.

Amy makes essentially the same argument from the agent's side. She explains that using a Coming Soon strategy requires more work from her operation — more preparation, more coordination and more steps before the listing becomes active.

That extra work is the point when it serves the client.

A pre-market strategy shouldn't exist because it makes a transaction easier for the brokerage.

It should exist because there is a defensible reason it benefits the seller.

Two experienced agents aren't discussing the fastest way to get a listing under contract.

They're discussing what the seller deserves from the person representing them.

More Exposure, Not an Inside Track

Marti also drew a clear line in the 2022 conversation around what she did not believe Coming Soon should become.

She rejected the idea of using the pre-showing period as a way to quietly steer a property toward an agent's own buyer. Her stated purpose was broader exposure and giving more of the market an opportunity to know the property was coming.

That distinction is still important.

Doorify's own documentation confirms Coming Soon listings appear in IDX and are distributed through the same syndication channels as any other listing.

So Coming Soon isn't a quieter version of a listing. It's the same exposure, on a deliberate timeline.

Marti's philosophy isn't about hiding the home.

It's about preparing its introduction.

When Coming Soon Met Resistance

Another 2022 conversation between Amy and Marti provides a revealing example of the philosophy being put into practice.

Amy recalled encountering resistance after implementing the Coming Soon approach in her own market.

She called Marti.

Amy remembers Marti bringing the entire discussion back to one question:

Did Amy genuinely believe the strategy was in her client's best interest?

Amy said yes.

Marti's response:

"Then you got to fight."

The significance isn't that Marti somehow anticipated what Doorify would do four years later.

She didn't.

The significance is the standard behind the advice.

If an agent recommends a strategy because it genuinely serves the seller, that agent should be prepared to explain the reasoning, do the work required to execute it well and stand behind the recommendation.

The Judgment Call Doorify Didn't Remove

Doorify's July 2026 update removes one practical drawback sellers previously had to weigh when considering Coming Soon.

It doesn't turn Coming Soon into the automatic answer.

A seller and agent still need to ask:

Is the property ready for buyers now, or is there still work to finish?

How much of the available 14-day period does this home actually need?

What will we accomplish before showings begin?

How will we use that period to build awareness?

What are we giving up by delaying physical access?

What happens the moment the property becomes Active?

Those answers won't be identical for every home.

Nor should they be.

The listing status is only the vehicle.

The strategy is what happens during it.

Twelve Years Later, Doorify Agrees

Greater Raleigh sellers now have a different Coming Soon option than they did under Doorify's previous rules.

A listing can spend up to 14 calendar days in Coming Soon without those days accumulating toward DOM. During that same period, buyers cannot physically tour the property.

Used well, that creates a defined runway to prepare the home, build the marketing, establish its position and begin attracting attention before the showing period opens.

Used without a plan, it's simply time when buyers can't get through the door.

That's the difference.

Marti founded Coming Soon Homes® in 2014, twelve years before Doorify made this change. The rules surrounding Coming Soon have changed over those years.

The central philosophy has been much more consistent:

Don't wait until opening night to start building the audience.

Prepare first. Create attention. Then open the doors.

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