A very common buyer requirement is that the property must be move in ready, or at least move in possible. Listings that have tenants in them are subject to additional requirements around notices, and move out. A common way to do this is to search for listings where Occupant Type = Vacant, but that would miss the ones that are Occupant Type = Owner, which often led to the creation of two nearly identical searches in order to find all of the listings.
When you need to create searches that are either Occupancy Type = Vacant or Occupancy Type = Owner, you are really looking for listings that are not subject to tenant right's governed processes. This can be achieved in the MLS by adding one small additional component to your Standard Search parameters.
If you have only one type of highest level Property Type selected (i.e. "Residential) you can click the Additional Criteria link at the top.
NOTE: The tab for Additional Criteria is DISABLED when you pick more than one property type, which is why it was so important that we merge the previous residential RESI and condominum COND type into one.
Once you're on that page, scroll down until you find the section for "Possession" where you will find the option for Subject To Tenant Rights. As long as the Listing Agent has correctly specified the details on the listing, you will be able to use the EXCLUDE feature to remove those listings from your search results.
Don't forget to click OK in order to save the option. Once you have done that, you will be able to confirm that you've set this parameter correctly by clicking on the View Criteria button that displays all of your current search parameters.
In my example search, I've combined the ability to exclude listings subject to Tenant Rights and to exclude the ADU=YES listings so that I really only get back dwellings that are single family units where there is no possibility of the property having an occupied disposition anywhere on it.
Using this combination of Additional Criteria parameters with our streamlined property types (combining the old RESI and COND into one) makes finding exactly what you need incredibly easy and laser precise in our new larger listing database.
Special thanks to Jeannie Gant for demonstrating this solution.