Saturday Morning Coffee | 8/17/13

Pocket Listings, Pre-MLS, & Ethics… Oh My!

I’ve been a huge fan of the work by 1000Watt Consulting. Marc, Brian, Joel and the gang do a great job dissecting issues affecting the brand of real estate agent. They also consult for some pretty major brands within the real estate space. Of course, this leads them to have some pretty weighty, thought provoking, discussions.

This article on pocket listings is no different. From the opening of the article:

Your agent has a pocket listing or a “coming soon” listing. They decide to start marketing that property on facebook. Or on their own website. Taking what was once a private conversation to the public domain.

Agents believe this is simply a marketing play. MLSs, brokers and associations disagree. They believe the minute an agent triggers a public marketing campaign, the property must fall into a process built to preserve the sanctity of the real estate profession.

A growing number of agents disagree. They continue to aggressively add more and more homes to an increasing number of public websites focused on coming soon listings, despite the legal and ethical concerns they should be beholden to.

Unspoken in this quote is, at least I assume, the thought the listing agent is attempting to drum up a buyer for this home before it hits the open and active market. Let me be clear, selling a home, prior to becoming active on the market, in this case, the MLS, does not allow the market to set the price. There is a strong potential that the home may be sold for less than the market would have paid.

What do you think of pre-MLS marketing?