Jointly checks each of your deals against the property's status on the MLS, and lets you know when the two do not agree. This article explains what that reminder is, what to do about it, and how to turn it off.
What is the MLS Status Update Required email?
Your deal's status in Jointly is not just a label — it is what releases the next stage of work on the transaction: the documents that get generated, the tasks assigned to each participant, the compliance record your brokerage relies on. When a property moves forward on the MLS but the deal in Jointly stays where it was, everything waiting on that status waits with it.
So Jointly compares the two once a day, for deals that are close to completing, and tells you when they disagree. You will notice it in two places:
An email titled MLS Status Update Required — or MLS Status Update Required (3 deals) and so on when more than one needs attention — listing each deal that does not match, with both statuses side by side and a link straight into the deal.
An Update Deal Status prompt waiting on the deal the next time you open it.
Jointly never changes a status for you. It asks.
One thing about the email that catches people out: each line is named after the offer or application itself, and that name can be edited. Left alone it defaults to the property address on buyer and tenant deals, and to the other agent's name on seller and landlord deals — so a line that looks like a person rather than an address is normal, not a mistake.
The status on my listing is not in the list
This is the most common question about the reminder, and it is not a fault.
The MLS and Jointly use different words for the same milestone. The MLS has dozens of listing statuses; the prompt on your offer, lease or application has a much shorter list of its own, and most MLS wordings do not appear on it at all. That is expected. Find the wording your MLS uses in the table below, and set the Jointly status beside it.
What the MLS says | The Jointly equivalent |
Pending, Under Contract, Active Under Contract, Contingent, Option Period | Executed |
Closed, Sold, Leased, Rented, Expired | Closed |
Cancelled, Terminated | Terminated |
Withdrawn | Withdrawn |
Three of those are worth reading twice.
Pending is a real Jointly word — just not on this prompt, and not for this. Your representation deal has its own Pipeline status, and that one does offer Pending. It sits at the other end of the same chain: on the MLS, Pending means a contract exists but has not closed; on the Pipeline status, Pending means you already have an executed offer. If you are looking at Pending on a representation deal and Pending on a listing, they are not the same field and not the same statement. The prompt is asking about the offer, lease or application.
Expired becomes Closed, which is not obvious — a listing that lapsed without selling is still a closed deal as far as Jointly is concerned.
Active Under Contract and plain Active read almost identically but mean opposite things: a property under contract needs your deal brought up to date, while an ordinary active listing means no contract exists yet, so it never produces a reminder at all.
The reminder is aimed above all at the under-contract case — a property that has gone under contract while the deal in Jointly is still open. The MLS carries other wordings besides those above, and a few of them do not have a settled Jointly equivalent. If you receive a reminder for wording you cannot find in the table, or the equivalent it gives is not offered on your deal, contact support rather than picking the nearest-looking option.
How do I update the status?
The prompt does the work for you, so the quickest route is the one it offers:
Open the deal — from the link in the email, or from your Deals dashboard. Either way you land on the offer or application with the Update Deal Status prompt already showing.
Under What would you like to update the deal status to?, choose the status. The list opens with nothing selected, so the choice is always yours to make.
If you choose Executed, a Final Acceptance Date field appears, pre-filled and editable. It is the date the deal was executed, and it only applies to that status.
Choose UPDATE STATUS.
That writes the status onto the deal and clears the reminder. Once a deal is marked Executed it is no longer checked at all, so the reminder cannot come back on it.
Choosing something that still does not match works differently. The reminder can return on a later day, because the two records still disagree — dealing with the prompt is not the same as bringing the deal into step. Only a status that genuinely matches the listing settles it.
The statuses on offer are the ones available on that particular deal, so the list is not identical everywhere — Executed, for instance, stops being offered once the deal is already executed. If the one you need is not there, contact support. For what each status means, see How to Update the Deal Status.
You do not have to be the one to do it, either. Anyone with access to the deal — an admin, a transaction coordinator, your broker, a second agent on a co-listed deal — sees the same prompt and can apply the status. Only you get the email.
The MLS is wrong, not my deal
Sometimes the deal in Jointly is right and the listing is the one that needs correcting. The prompt cannot help with that, so dismiss it with NOT NOW and correct the listing on the MLS. Once the two records agree, the next day's check finds them in step and no new reminder is raised.
How do I dismiss the reminder?
NOT NOW closes the prompt without changing your deal, and removes that reminder from it. Jointly asks you to confirm first, and the confirmation says the step will be removed — that is expected.
It is not a snooze, and there is no set period after which it comes back. The daily check simply looks at the deal again the next day: if the two records still do not agree, a new reminder is raised; if they do agree by then, nothing happens.
The daily check will not add a second reminder while one is still open on the deal, so a deal you have not got to yet does not email you every morning. If you do find several stacked up on one deal, or one you cannot dismiss, that is not normal — contact support and they can clear them for you.
Why did I not get a reminder?
All of these are working as intended:
The closing date is not within the next two weeks. Only deals closing in the next fortnight are compared — so a deal that has gone past its closing date is not checked, and neither is one closing months from now. On a lease application it is the move-in date that is read, not a closing date.
The deal is already Executed, Terminated, Rejected or Withdrawn. Executed is the point of the reminder, so a deal that has got there is finished with this check.
The listing is simply Active. No contract exists, so there is nothing to bring up to date.
The deal is not linked to an MLS listing — including a property entered as off-MLS. There is no listing to compare against.
The deal is archived.
Because a deal already marked Executed is no longer checked, this is not a complete report of every difference between Jointly and the MLS. Treat it as a prompt, not an audit.
Why is there no reminder on my lease application?
The reminder can appear on a lease application as well as on an offer, and where it appears it works the same way — with one difference worth knowing: the date it goes by is the move-in date, not a closing date. A lease whose move-in date is further than two weeks away, or already past, is not compared.
So if you are expecting a reminder on a lease and it has not arrived, check the move-in date on the application first. If that is within the next two weeks and nothing has appeared, contact support.
How do I stop these emails?
These reminders are on by default. To switch them off, go to Manage Profile > Notifications and clear Deal status update reminders, the last checkbox under Email Notification Preferences. Every reminder email links straight there from its footer.
Deal-level settings apply too: whether a particular deal reaches you is also governed by that deal's Automatic Deal Notification Settings, found on the deal under the participant's Update Information. Either setting is enough to stop the email on its own.
One thing to know: this reminder is email only. If you have chosen to receive automated notifications by text message, that preference does not apply here — you will still receive the email, and there is no text version of it. The checkbox above is what stops it.