One of the best ways to sell a house is either via the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) or through a pocket listing. I wouldn't go the self-listing route, unless you are a licensed real estate agent, a real estate attorney, or already have a buyer lined up. There's too much at stake, especially now.
In normal times, the MLS is the regular way most people sell their homes. Listing on the MLS gets the most amount of eyeballs on your property, which should give you the highest chance of getting the highest price. But we are certainly not living in normal times. Therefore, it may be wise for sellers to consider selling through a pocket listing first.
A pocket listing is a type of real estate listing that is retained by a listing broker and not made public on the multiple listing service. The listing broker will privately market the listing to his or her network of other brokers and potential buyers.
Pocket Listing Headwinds
A pocket listing was common place until on November 11, 2019, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) board of directors voted 729-70 to ban the practice of pocket listings, also known as private listings.
Starting in May 1, 2020, pocket listings were no longer technically allowed if you are an agent who belongs to the NAR. This banning of pocket listings was absurd. The NAR does not have the right to regulate sellers – just agents who belong to the association. Out of the roughly two million licensed agents in the U.S., about 70% are Realtors who belong to NAR.
According to the NAR, if you want to sell a property, you must “within one business day of marketing a property to the public, submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants.” Talk about wanting monopoly-control! Maybe the NAR will start telling us how we should remodel our homes too.
MLS Monopoly And Real Estate Collusion
The MLS is the largest public database of properties for sale in America. Once your home is on the MLS, the whole world can see what you're up to. Good luck to the NAR for trying to enforce people to not privately try and test the waters first with their own property.
Like many industries, the real estate industry is hurting. Volume is down due to shelter-in-place and the desire for sellers to hold onto a stable asset in an uncertain world.
To help with volume, the NAR board could vote to allow pocket listings again and decrease commissions. Doing these two things should help boost business. But old ways die hard. As a result, even less realtors will probably get paid.
At the end of 2023, the National Association of Realtors, Keller Williams, and Home Services of America were found guilty of real estate collusion and price fixing. As a result, there should be more flexibility with pocket listing going forward in 2024 and beyond.
Here's my fascinating conversation with the trial attorney, Mike Ketchmark, who won the landmark case against NAR and the brokers. The bottom line is that real estate commissions should come down over the years. On March 15, 2024, the NAR settled for $418 million, which means that real estate commissions should be declining immediately as consumers demand better.
The Best Way To Sell A House: MLS or Pocket Listing
In 2017, I thought about going through the MLS again, but I had had a bad experience the first time I tried in 2012.
Let me share my experiences trying to sell via the MLS and via a pocket listing.
If the practice of pocket listing is reinstated by the NAR, you'll be better prepared to make a better decision. At least some local MLS markets are still allowing agents to market listings internally first before doing a public listing. In other words, pocket listings are still going on in some form or another.
My Experience Selling Via The MLS
In 2012, through the MLS, I failed to get ANY offers at my $1.7 million asking price. I thought the price was reasonable given it was just 12% more after 7 years of ownership.
We had just gone through a terrible recession and buyers were still quite hesitant. Every buyer balked at the location. They gave feedback that the location was too noisy, too busy, and not great for kids.
After four weeks on the MLS, the vultures started circling. I got a couple of low ball whisper offers for between $1.5 – $1.6 million. Nobody even bothered to make a written offer.
Such being the case, after some thought, I decided it would be better to hold on to the property rather than sell for a loss after commissions. It costs a lot to sell a house. Further, once your home has been on the MLS for more than 30 days in San Francisco, it starts getting stale. Therefore, we took the house off the market on the 29th day.
Listing my home on the MLS didn't help me like I thought it would. However, the biggest negative factor was likely market conditions.
Related: What I Learned From Not Selling My House
Selling Via A Pocket Listing
By 2017, I had been renting out the house I tried to sell for three years and decided I had had enough. Earlier, in 2014, I had bought a fixer in a wonderful neighborhood on a quiet street and moved to Golden Gate Heights. Having moved, I decided to rent out my old house.
Renting out the house for three years was not a pleasant experience. Although I wanted to rent to a stable family, all I could find were a group of 4-5 tech guys to rent to. These tenants threw parties, trashed the house, and often paid rent late.
As a new father in 2017, I decided to simplify life and try and sell again. Instead of going the MLS route, I decided to try selling via a pocket listing instead. I hired an agent who was in the Top Agent Network. She also agreed to lower her commission to 4%.
The Top Agent Network (TAN) is a network for agents who are in the top 10% in terms of volume sold for the trailing 12 months. As part of the TAN, you get access to the most connected agents in your city who seem to always have a buyer in mind.
Shooting For The Stars
The great thing about doing a pocket listing is that you can test out an aspirational price without getting egg on your face. If you fail to get an aspirational price, you can simply lower your price without the whole world knowing.
Before marketing the pocket listing, I told my agent that if I could get over $2,500,000, I would be very happy. After all, five years earlier, I couldn't get a written offer for $1,700,000. She agreed it was a good price for a home that needed updating. The home was also on a busy street next to one of the busiest streets in all of San Francisco.
Without a listing price, she sent out details about my home with some pictures to the Top Agent Network and other agents she personally knew.
On the sixth day, she had an interested buyer. Wow! That was quick. My agent got to chatting with the buyer's agent. She set up a private tour since I requested we not have any open houses.
The buyers loved the home and made a written offer for $2,600,000. Score! Not only was the offer $100,000 higher than my aspirational price, the prospective buyers also wrote a great real estate love letter.
The prospective buyer said they were from Virginia, where I went to high school and college. Go William & Mary!
He said our home, with its brick facade, reminded him of the colonial home he grew up in. Further, he had a three-year-old son who was attending a language immersion preschool close by.
I am a sucker for people who take the time to care. We had owned the home for 12 years and hoped to one day raise children in the home. We had found the perfect buyer.
Going For Broke
After the excitement of getting a written offer had subsided, I went back into Financial Samurai mode. My goal was to sell for as high a price as possible in order to better take care of my family.
Given they loved the home so much, I decided to counter. Of course, I would counter in the most respectful way possible with a real estate love letter of my own, to not scare off the buyer. Again, we had never put down a list price on our pocket listing.
With a pocket listing, we had little downside if the buyers rejected us. We would simply take our sweet time and find other buyers. We could also eventually list on the MLS with a fresh start.
I countered at $2,850,000 because I had nothing to lose. The realistic worst-case scenario was that they stayed firm on their $2,600,000 offer. We got down to $2,788,000. Then they asked for a $43,000 concession after doing their inspection. They found there were leaky windows and dry rot in all the back windows. Fair enough.
In the end, we agreed upon $2,745,000, which was $245,000 above my original aspirational price. I attribute this win partially to a pocket listing. A pocket listing gave me the confidence to go for glory.
And no, my agent didn’t double end the commission. Half went to the buyer’s agent and brokerage for bringing my one and only buyer.
The Benefits Of A Pocket Listing
Listing a property during the middle of a coronavirus pandemic is bad timing. If you can wait until there is a vaccine or until there is herd immunity, you will likely get a higher price. There are plenty of people like me looking to get a deal.
But as we all know, life happens. Maybe you have to relocate for a job. Perhaps you got a divorce and need to split the assets. Or maybe you were blessed with another child and need more space. Nobody plans to list during a pandemic.
If you must list your home during an inopportune time, then I recommend trying the pocket listing route first. Here are the reasons why a pocket listing is best way to sell a house:
- You will have greater confidence asking for an aggressive price because there's little downside.
- There won't be a public record online (MLS, Zillow, Redfin, etc) that shows when and at what price you listed the home. This is important because buyers will use this information to their advantage. The longer the home was or is on the market, the more the buyer will attempt to low ball you.
- A high Days On Market (DOM) count is one of the seller's worst enemies. A pocket listing keeps your DOM at zero, so no “stale fish” listing.
- You protect your privacy. Today, the vast majority of real estate searches are done online. With a pocket listing, your friends, colleagues, pesky neighbors, and extended family won't know you've listed your home. This privacy gives you more flexibility for Stealth Wealth practitioners.
- You won't feel as embarrassed or embarrassed at all if you don't sell. There's a lot of emotion involved when selling a home.
- Given public open houses are not allowed yet in many parts of the country, the benefit of listing on the MLS to drum up buyer Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) isn't as great.
The Biggest Benefit Of The MLS
Most believe the best way to sell a house is via the MLS. Not in my experience, which is why I'd love more people to share their experience with the MLS.
The biggest benefit of listing on the MLS is getting the most amount of public exposure possible. The more exposure your listing has, the greater the chance you will find a buyer. The more potential buyers you attract, the greater your chance of getting a higher sales price.
Buyer real estate FOMO is real. Most people going through an open house are just tire kickers. However, just the fact that you see other potential buyers will naturally make you want to buy the house or pay more.
It only takes one other interested buyer to create a bidding war. Listing on the MLS increases your chance of finding multiple interested parties. The more people bid, the higher the chance of prices going over asking or even higher than the current market price.
Just know that selling a property is at least 3X more stressful than buying a property. If you lose out on buying a property, you will be disappointed. However, there's always another property that comes along.
If your property fails to sell, not only will you feel embarrassed and dejected, you will have wasted a lot of time. Further, you may lose money because you may have spent money staging the property and fixing it up. The stakes are much higher when you are the seller.
Pocket Listing Workaround
Although the NAR has banned pocket listing, that doesn't mean pocket listings aren't still going on.
The easiest workaround from the NAR's decision is to internally market a property to your brokerage. For example, Compass real estate brokerage has a 40% market share in my hometown of San Francisco. A Compass real estate agent can simply market his or her listing within the firm and keep it off the MLS and public view.
Therefore, sellers of real estate may want to try a pocket listing with a large real estate brokerage firm first.
Brokers also use this “Coming soon” feature to create buzz without actually going on the MLS. This way, many wealthier homeowners maintain their privacy and don't feel as embarrassed if their house failed to sell.
Again, it only takes one other interested buyer to create real estate FOMO and competition. The realty is, if you are a buyer, you'd also want to buy a house off market for less competition.
Final Verdict: Pocket Listing Or MLS?
When pocket listings are voted back in full force, I recommend you first try a pocket listing fist before going to the MLS. There’s little downside in trying. Even if pocket listings aren't legally allowed, I'd still use the “Coming soon” strategy to test out the market and your asking price. It can't hurt, unless you are in urgent need to sell for the liquidity.
It may take more time to sell your home if the pocket listing attempt is unsuccessful. However, by doing so, you won't be negatively impacted by a high Days On Market count if your expectations are not met. Further, you will have gathered vital market intelligence. After a 30-day period, if you feel you need more exposure, then you can list on the MLS.
The reality is, you can still privately market your home anyway you want. There's no rule that says you can't post feelers out to your network. Agents can still check within their offices first as well before going public. If you have a more expensive home, like privacy, and are not 100% certain you can get your aspirational price or want to sell your home, a pocket listing makes sense.
It is my bet that the National Association Of Realtors will vote to reverse their unwise decision and allow for pocket listings once more. They should if they want their industry to survive. There is no stopping technology.
The “coming soon” feature you see on Redfin and Zillow is already a hybrid way to do a pocket listing.
Reinvesting The Proceeds Wisely
Once you've decided the best way to sell a house is through the MLS or a pocket listing, you've got to decide how to best reinvest the proceeds.
With large windfalls, I recommend sitting on the proceeds for at least a month before spending or investing it. Having a lot of cash sometimes triggers a tendency to go nuts.
You've basically got several options with your home sale proceeds:
- Keep everything in cash
- Buy another home down the road, or more immediately through a 1031 Exchange
- Invest in stocks, bonds, and alternative investments
- Use the money to improve yourself
- Invest in your own business
- Give the proceeds away
- Invest in online real estate, such as with platforms like Fundrise and CrowdStreet to diversify and earn more passive real estate income. I've personally invested $954,000 in online real estate after selling my physical rental property in 2017.
Most people will do a combination of the above.
Because I sold an investment property, I decided to reinvest 100% of the proceeds into stocks, bonds, and real estate crowdfunding in one-third increments.
Home prices around the median price for your city and lower are likely still strong. However, if your home is 50% or higher than the median home price, you will likely find weakness. I'd try the private route first before going full MLS. It may save you a lot of stress, embarrassment, and money.
Reader Questions
Readers, I'd love to know if any of you have successfully sold a home via a pocket listing? If you have done both, which is the best way to sell a house? What are additional positives of selling via the MLS we should be aware of? Deciding between a pocket listing and listing on the MLS is tough. I recommend trying a pocket listing first and then spreading out to the MLS.
Diversify Your Investments Into Real Estate
Fundrise manage private real estate funds that predominantly invests in the Sunbelt region where valuations are lower and yields are higher. Its focus is on residential and industrial commercial real estate to help investors diversify and earn passive returns.
Fundrise currently manages over $3.5 billion for over 500,000 investors. I've invested $954,000 in private real estate funds since 2016 to diversify my investments and make more money passively. After I had children, I no longer wanted to manage as many rental properties.
Another private real estate platform to consider is CrowdStreet. Crowdstreet is a marketplace that mainly sources individual commercial real estate deals from various sponsors around the country. This way, you have more customization to build your own select private real estate portfolio.
Make sure you diversify your portfolio and do your due diligence on all the sponsors. Look up their track record, their management, and whether they have had any blowups before. Although CrowdStreet screens the deals, you have to do your screening as well.
I am not a specialist anymore (used to be) but reinvesting is not possible, as this person said he was going to do with the proceeds. You cannot buy a home with a 1031 exchange. You can buy a house you will rent out. You need to indicate in 45 days at least 3 properties. You cannot use that money for training. Nor for doing “whatever” else or you will have to pay taxes, and also pay back the taken depreciation (at 25% tax rate). Speak with a CCIM for more details today.
When I’ve read your articles in the past, you’ve struck me as an intelligent, rational person, however, reading this made me cringe a bit.
Lets forget for a second that arguing that doing something is bad/good based on ONE experience. This is silly in and of itself.
I would instead focus on the fact that you drew a conclusion that pocket listings are good because you sold in a hot market while you couldn’t sell on MLS in a terrible market.
Are you not seeing the problem?
The fact that your home was in a less desirable location amplifies the market quite a bit. Buyers stay away from undesirable homes completely in a bad market, as you experienced in 2012. While in hot (borderline crazy) market of 2017-2018, you hear things like “El Camino isn’t THAT busy”, or “I don’t mind the train, I grew up in New York”.
I would also bring up the points of –
Did you truly know the value of your home in 2012?
Did you truly know the value of your home in 2017?
I would submit that you did not. even if you think you did. If you knew the value in 2012, you wouldn’t have been surprised by your home not selling, so selling over or under your expected price, is not an indicator of success.
Prices in most parts of the bay area doubled from 2012 to 2017, so your initial expectation of 1.7M is equivalent to $3.4M in 2017, not $2.5M. (Assuming prices doubled in your neighborhood). To me, your price expectations both times seem rather arbitrary.
Lastly, implying that if you had done a pocket listing in 2012, you would have sold better is beyond silly. Thinking that you sold better as a pocket listing in 2017 than you would have on MLS is always possible, but extremely unlikely.
I would submit, that perhaps if you sold on MLS in 2017, you would have had 10-20 buyers fighting for your home and you would not have needed to drop the price because of the leaking windows. The reason for this is that non-contingent offers were (and to an extent still are) the norm. So I would argue that you could have easily saved $45K if you had listed … plus you probably would have gotten a higher price to begin with.
Unfortunately, it sounds like you blew it with your home sale. Luckily, you sold in one of the hottest times/markets, so the market didn’t let you shoot yourself in the foot and sell for $2.5M, even with just the one buyer.
It’s hard to game the system, and to me, it sounds like you’ve fallen for a sales pitch.
Take a step back, and re-think this situation from a new perspective, then delete this post :-)
Your first error is assuming I’m an intelligent person. I’m clearly not, which is why I continue to write and learn.
I’ve just shared my experience and did mention twice in this article that the biggest factor determining a home price is the market, and not whether to list via MLS or Pocket Listing.
Finally, believe it or not, we did do extensive market research on pricing before coming up with a proposed aspirational price. We also did send the listing out to over 100 agents to get their feedback.
At $3.4 million, my home on a busy street next to the busiest street in SF would have fetched $1,642/sqft. Back then, the average p/sqft for a home on a quiet street in a similar location was about $1,225/sqft. Hence, with a 2,070 sqft home, if I could get a similar price for a home on a much better block, I would sell. Instead, I ended up getting $1,326/sqft, and my home still had old knob and tube wiring, and hadn’t been remodeled in 25 years. I was thrilled.
But I think it’s great you think the market for my home can accommodate $1,642/sqft. That makes me bullish because I have several other single family homes in SF in much nicer condition all with panoramic ocean views on a quiet block. If I can get there, or if the market is there now, I’ve undervalued my net worth by over $5 million.
Please share your homeownership history. I’d love to know what you own and whether you’ve sold recently. I’m also looking to learn. And learning from other people’s experiences is one of the best ways.
Thanks Igor. And if you don’t mind, may I use your comment to write a new post? I think it’ll help other readers as well.
I’m glad you didn’t just delete my post :-)
Unfortunately you misunderstood what I was saying in regards to price, so hopefully that didn’t make you miss the main point I was making in the bad advice you’re giving in this post.
I am by no means telling you that your home was worth $3.4M in 2017.
I’ve never seen your home and would have no way of magically giving you a value online – Only Zillow and Redfin have that ability :P
What I said was that if your home was worth $1.7M in 2012, it would imply a value of $3.4M in 2017 (very very roughly, as prices pretty much doubled in those years).
You then took that as me saying that you missed out on on hundreds of thousands when you sold and started talking about the condition of your home etc…
While what you should have gotten from that is that you simply over-priced in 2012.
The reality could be somewhere in between as well – again there is no way for me to know without magic powers, but I think from your story it’s safe to say that you didn’t sell in 2012 because you were overpriced, not because you listed on MLS :-)
Hopefully that makes sense. If you want to chat more about this, or why selling off-market tends to be a bad idea, I’m happy to.
I am not an expert in SF specifically, where I could give you specific feedback on your home, but I am an expert in Silicon Valley, so our markets are not far off in trends and I can give you general real estate advice if you’re ever interested.
Also worth noting is that I’m a member of TAN, so I’m certainly not against it, but what I find is its much more advantageous for buyers than sellers. There are only rare cases where a seller benefits from an off market listing.
Cool. Can you send me a reference link on where prices doubled between 2012-2017? The increase was closer to 65% from the data I see for SF.
Also, my home was probably worth about $1.5 million when I listed it in 2012. That is what I said in the post. I also said I attribute most of the price to the market. Are these points not clear?
If you think it is worth $3 million (double), or $1,450/sqft, what would you attribute the 12% premium to?
What are the downsides of trying to do a pocket listing first?
Finally, can you share when you bought Bay Area real estate and your price prediction over the next 12 months? What are you seeing in the market today and at what price points?
Igor, you come across as an arrogant jerk. Is it in your nature to try and make people feel bad about past decisions, even if they’re trying to help others?
What kind of real estate agent are you who pretends to know everything about the situation, and disregards someone’s efforts and the other agent’s efforts in marketing the property?
The SF market wasn’t up 100% in 5 years. Maybe 80% in places like Palo Alto and Cupertino, but not SF.
You give Realtors a bad name.
I apologize, this was not my intention at all. I also completely did not mean to make Sam feel bad about past decisions.
My only point was to point out the flaw in his thinking that pocket listing helped him sell better and thinking that selling off market is somehow better than on MLS.
I apologize to Sam or anyone else I offended- again not my intent, at all and I will not be posting again.
What’s amazing is you think you know more about his house than he does and the San Francisco listing agent does.
Every property is unique and different. Prices didn’t double in five years either. If you’re really a real estate agent and don’t understand how mix and types of property affect overall prices, then you’re a bad agent.
A pocket listing is great to try it out first risk free.
I think you’re missing the point of the pocket listing. The best way to get the highest price is to expose your house to the largest number of people out there. That is with the MLS, which feeds to all the other websites. The only thing a pocket listing does is help the agent double end the sale. This is the primary reason agents HAVE pocket listings, private listings, or coming soon listings. It does not benefit the homeowner to NOT expose their property to the most people. Long time Realtor here.
Check out the post. It has a lot of points. And my agent did not double end the sale.
As a long time investor I see pocket listings work for me when buying, especially in a hot market. Less competition if one of my 2 realtors bring me a deal as I flip and some I hold for rentals as well. When I sell I will never do a pocket listing as I want the most exposure as possible. If I’m buying for a rental or flip then I’m looking for a pocket listing as you know you make your money on the front end.
Just learned TAN is currently suing the National Association of Realtors for anti-trust violations (among others) to get the pocket-listing rule overturned. Glad TAN is fighting.
Good to know. I just checked them out and applied for membership (although they don’t currently have a Charlotte, NC chapter :) )
Sam; Whatever happened to the new house that you bought around the end of last year? Did you move into it, or rent it out? What is the status of the house you were living in prior to that purchase.
Finished remodeling the kitchens and bathrooms before the lockdowns and have been enjoying it! Have a series of posts about renting out the old house. But not sure if it’s appropriate at the moment.
Reading this gave me hope. I had to move in April because of my job. My house went on the market just as lockdowns started. It’s now 3 months. I’ve gotten multiple offers. With the exception of one, the rest were all much, much lower than listing price. Buyers also seem much more skittish and two have backed out of agreed upon offers. So here I am, 3 months later, with the house going off and on the market. I really don’t want to rent it out, but it may be for the better. The listing price is now 10-20% lower than what it would have sold last year. Maybe if I wait a couple years, it’ll sell for what it should.
Interesting article. I had never really considered using pocket listings before, and I have sold 3 homes now.
It sounds like if I sell this house(not likely to happen anytime soon) I will be giving them a try.
I am a real estate attorney in Georgia. The NAR’s position is monopolistic – it’s your property. You can engage an agent to sell your property on any terms you desire that the agent will accept, and I don’t see how their position is legally enforceable.
To your question, I don’t see a lot of pocket listings around here (I live in a town of 200,000) but I see a lot of realtors who are working with sellers in desirable neighborhoods who call prospects ahead of an official listing and broker a deal before the property ever gets on the market. Only works in about five neighborhoods but those neighborhoods are very active.
I have a trusted real estate agent who takes the normal commission, and we list through MLS. I always do a property exchange and have another property or several ready to go for the exchange. This has worked for us. I trusted real estate professional even for us “real estate investors” is invaluable. I don’t mind paying commission as everyone needs to earn a living.
I have sold bought 6 properties and sold 5. All purchases have been through MLS, because I do my own searches and part of my offer is usually 8% off list (3% for commission savings, 5% off list) (1/2 of 6% commission which is standard in my area). I have never been rejected because the seller doesn’t care if the 3% goes to the buyers agent, or doesn’t get received at all. I don’t know about buying a pocket listing, because that means you have to have an agent.
As for selling, I have done 3 through MLS, and 2 through private sale (no listing). The three through MLS mostly was because I moved and was no longer in that state anymore, and could hold on to for a prolonged period and needed it gone fast. I can look at a pocket listing for my next sale, whenever I sell that house if I have to, but it is currently under a land use contract for sale (when they can get a mortgage, we have a contract price, and they get it).
In a hot market, I did retain a broker who requested a ‘pocket listing’ and we agreed to a two-week window until listing publicly. The 4% commission was enough incentive for me to agree. However! It turned out (after-the-fact) that my broker did find a broker with motivated buyers who agreed to the price; the two weeks expired, and my broker (and cooperating broker) listed the property, encouraging a bidding war that didn’t materialize.
So, I paid 5% commission, the buyer paid the listed price (which they had already agreed in principle to pay), and the brokers each got an extra 1/2%. I don’t know what I would have done differently, as I found out through the ‘grapevine’ and had no recourse.
If you did not know your realtor before listing it, I believe You got screwed on the 1%. Realtors know each other well, be it in the same office or previous sales. They talk to one another, especially in a tight fast market and your broker was holding for hopefully to attain a dual seller/buyer sale. The problem is proving it. A lot of realtors are very very good/high integrity and honest. Sad to say there are a lot that are worse than some car salespeople. Would tell and sell their mom if they could.
In today’s market you can negotiate a 4% commission. Remember commissions are negotiable! In this market I would not pay over 4% total. If the house is in good condition, in a good area it will sell fast. Remember inventory is at all time lows! New home construction is way way down and demand is huge! That means interview multiple realtors before listing. Tell them your commission price. In this market w/such low inventory they will gladly take reduced commission!
Hmmm… I would actually e-mail your old listing agent and ask if s/he is willing to refund you 0.5%. No downside trying.
Pocket listings are no longer allowed. The National Association of Realtors now has a new “Clear Cooperation” policy, which started May 1, 2020 whereby listing brokers and agents are required to submit listings within one business day of marketing the property to the public – in other words, within 24 hours of offering listings to a select audience.
You’re right. I didn’t know this, and I have a real estate license (although it’s not my day job). I am reading that some agents are skirting it by having the property as a “coming soon” property as opposed to an active listing. Interesting, though.
Yes! I’ve been seeing the “Coming Soon” thing on Redfin and Zillow for the past couple of months.
That is totally the way to pocket list. And I think that is smart.
Hmm. You’ve given me a lot to think about, here. I’ve heard (from real estate agents) that pocket listings are often better, but I generally dismissed that as being self-serving. Many real estate agents try to double-end the commission when they do that, especially in the multifamily space.
Did you have any issues getting your house to appraise for the much higher price that the buyers were willing to pay? I’m wondering if the market would have supported that valuation anyway.
It would be nice to get a true apples-to-apples comparison of pocket listings vs. MLS in the same market, but unless you have two identical houses next door to each other, I don’t see how that could be tested.
I think the main determinant of the housing price is the market for sure. 2012 was a bad time to sell versus 2017. And you’re right, it’s hard to completely compare because the markets were different.
I hope more people can share their perspectives on selling the the MLS and selling via a pocket listing.
Going the pocket listing route is like getting a free trial. And if an agent is confident that he or she can sell we are a pocket listing, that means his or her network is strong. The NAR can’t regulate what you privately do with your home. Further, even if a Realtor is part of the NAR, the Realtor can still market your property internal first.. which is like doing a pocket listing.
I would never recommend this seller allow the listing agent to get both sides of the commission. Instead, if the agent finds a buyer, I would negotiate getting some type of rebate. But of course, that depends if the buyer is going to go with the listing agent as well, which you might not want. But for the right discount price, you might.
Everything is negotiable.
Plus with the current market in most places by going the MLS route Will mean maximum exposure and most likely multiple offers! Great for the seller!
If you don’t want to try before you buy, go for it then. Especially if your home is well priced and close to or under the median price for your city.
I love all the advantages of pocket listing that you described! If I need to sell down the road I’d definitely like to pocket list first and see how things go if I’m not in a time crunch.