Should You Try Selling Your Home as a Pocket Listing?

Pocket listings have both pros and cons to them, but they
typically don’t give you the best chance to get a great price on
your home.


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What is a pocket listing?

Basically, a pocket listing is when you have an agent who tries
to sell a home before it hits the market. The agent tries to
market that property to their internal list of buyers so they can
get both halves of the commission. If you’re a seller, there are
both pros and cons to this type of listing.

On the pro side, it’s a much quieter sale. You can avoid having a
lot of showings or walkthroughs and your agent can sell the
property directly to one of the few buyers who come to your
house.

On the con side, not exposing the listing to the public market
means not generating any competition. Less competition means the
buyer who’s bidding on your house has no incentive to get
aggressive on their offer price. Therefore, you won’t have the best
chance to get a great price on your house.

“

Pocket listings don’t always allow you to get the best possible
price for your home.

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We’re seeing record-low inventory in our market right now, so
there is fierce competition and multiple bids happening for many
listed homes that end up selling over their asking price. Before
you let an agent sell your home as a pocket listing, stop and
consider what your aim is. The buyer doesn’t have to compete
against other buyers and the agent gets both sides of the
commission without the extra work, but what about you?

On our team, even if we have a buyer that’s perfect for one of our
seller’s properties, we still suggest to that seller that it might
be a good idea to expose that property to the public market before
allowing the buyer to make an offer on it. By widening the number
of potential buyers, you increase your odds of getting the best
possible price for your home.

If you have any questions about this topic or have a topic in mind
you’d like to see me discuss in a future video, please feel free to
give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you.