So a friend of mine used MLS4owners.com to list his house for sale a couple months ago. And then decided to not sell his house this year and canceled the listing. Can you guess what happened over the course of the subsequent weeks? No less than 20 real estate agents phoned him, a few of them calling multiple times – even after he asked them to stop – trying to nab the listing.

Is this what canceled MLS listings are for? From a consumer’s standpoint, it seems if you pay money to list your house using the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (it costs $595 through MLS4owners.com), you’re not paying to be solicited.

Ken Whitney, general manager at MLS4owners.com, said two customers have complained this year about such unwanted solicitations.

I called Dick Beeson, an MLS director and Windermere broker, to see if any MLS rules were being violated and he said the information on listings is fair game once they are expired or canceled. And, he said, 70 percent of listings that go off the market end up relisted with another agent, providing incentive to call. But he did note that it’s not good form to continue phoning when a seller has said he’s pursuing other options.

One way a consumer can avoid such phone calls is to be listed as an undisclosed seller, which requires sending a letter to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service before the listing goes active. This allows you to keep your phone number off of the listing. However, if you sell by owner or go through MLS4owners.com, you are acting on your own behalf and your information will be up for grabs during and after your home is for sale.