Selling off/pre-market with Compass or another brokerage

[Anonymous]

Hoping to sell off market. I know that Compass has private exclusive listings and I have talked to an agent about that. Seems like that could be somewhat limiting - as in you'll only see it if you're a buyer working with a Compass agent. Any other brokerages (or agents) that do off market or pre-market very well? Our house is in a highly desirable neighborhood and should sell quickly if we get a decent number of eyes on it. Trying to avoid listing for a couple reasons but will resort to it if needed. TIA!

[Anonymous]

Why? you'll never get the max price and usually they want full 3%/3%

[Anonymous]

We won't accept a bad offer. Can go to open market if needed. Just looking to see if anyone has had success ...

[Anonymous]

A house in our neighborhood is currently a Compass exclusive. I've seen a few couples with their realtors come by and check it out over the last week. Our neighborhood is also very popular and homes tend to move quickly, but I hadn't seen the "exclusive" thing before, personally. We will see when it finally sells.

[Anonymous]

I would let neighbors know you're looking to sell if it's about publicly posting. People might come out of the woodwork

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A house in our neighborhood is currently a Compass exclusive. I've seen a few couples with their realtors come by and check it out over the last week. Our neighborhood is also very popular and homes tend to move quickly, but I hadn't seen the "exclusive" thing before, personally. We will see when it finally sells.

Just curious, does it have a sign out front indicating it's for sale? Or is there no way to tell unless you're in the know?

[Anonymous]

By definition you limit the pool of potential buyers. Logically, that should lead to fewer/lower offers, due to reduced competition. With that, time on the market might reasonably be expected to be longer.

You need a pretty compelling reason to take this route over one which exposes your listing to as many people and agents as possible. ITts a technique which favors the listing agent and brokerage, not the client.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By definition you limit the pool of potential buyers. Logically, that should lead to fewer/lower offers, due to reduced competition. With that, time on the market might reasonably be expected to be longer.

You need a pretty compelling reason to take this route over one which exposes your listing to as many people and agents as possible. ITts a technique which favors the listing agent and brokerage, not the client.

There have been a lot of these "exclusive" listings since the NAR settlement. I live around Georgetown/Burleith/Glove Park and I see these - they will have a sign out front and be posted on the brokerages website, but they won't pop up on Redfin or Zillow.

I have no idea how brokerages are convincing wealthy people to do this. It flies in the face of economic theories about maximizing the price for their clients. The only thing I can suspect is that they are offering low brokerage fees to the owner by not listing on the MLS. But even that still doesn't make any sense since they likely will not maximize their bids.

This is ripe for an economics white paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A house in our neighborhood is currently a Compass exclusive. I've seen a few couples with their realtors come by and check it out over the last week. Our neighborhood is also very popular and homes tend to move quickly, but I hadn't seen the "exclusive" thing before, personally. We will see when it finally sells.

Just curious, does it have a sign out front indicating it's for sale? Or is there no way to tell unless you're in the know?

It does, and it says "private exclusive" underneath.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who went this route with Compass, and they're not wealthy at all (it was about a $1 million house). They're not even the types who care about "privacy." The way they described it was -- the house would be shown only to clients of Compass first, and they might get some valuable feedback if it didn't sell before putting it out publicly. They got an offer they were pleased with after the brokers open house for Compass people only, and that was the end of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By definition you limit the pool of potential buyers. Logically, that should lead to fewer/lower offers, due to reduced competition. With that, time on the market might reasonably be expected to be longer.

You need a pretty compelling reason to take this route over one which exposes your listing to as many people and agents as possible. ITts a technique which favors the listing agent and brokerage, not the client.

There have been a lot of these "exclusive" listings since the NAR settlement. I live around Georgetown/Burleith/Glove Park and I see these - they will have a sign out front and be posted on the brokerages website, but they won't pop up on Redfin or Zillow.

I have no idea how brokerages are convincing wealthy people to do this. It flies in the face of economic theories about maximizing the price for their clients. The only thing I can suspect is that they are offering low brokerage fees to the owner by not listing on the MLS. But even that still doesn't make any sense since they likely will not maximize their bids.

This is ripe for an economics white paper.

The argument in favor is usually an appeal to vanity, using words like "exclusive" to suggest something unavailable to the great unwashed masses. But, you're correct that this is not in the best economic interests of the sellers, only the agents and brokers who double dip on the commissions by keeping both sides in-house.

If someone does get an offer with one of these in-house listings, they are psychologically unlikely to reject it in favor of a more speculative, but potentially higher, later offer if the listing were more widely visible. So these brokerages have little to lose - if they manage to broker an in-house sale they win. If they can't, they can open the listing up later, and still profit, just not as much. The losers are their clients who either get less for their property or whose houses stay on the market longer than necessary because the properties weren't widely advertised to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By definition you limit the pool of potential buyers. Logically, that should lead to fewer/lower offers, due to reduced competition. With that, time on the market might reasonably be expected to be longer.

You need a pretty compelling reason to take this route over one which exposes your listing to as many people and agents as possible. ITts a technique which favors the listing agent and brokerage, not the client.

+1 OP, it really comes down to whether or not your reasons to not put it on the market are worth you potentially getting less money and taking longer to sell your home.

Normally I would suggest to post on your neighborhood listserv or SM to let neighbors know you're interested in selling, but I don't know if that would present the same issues that lead you to avoid putting it on the market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hoping to sell off market. I know that Compass has private exclusive listings and I have talked to an agent about that. Seems like that could be somewhat limiting - as in you'll only see it if you're a buyer working with a Compass agent. Any other brokerages (or agents) that do off market or pre-market very well? Our house is in a highly desirable neighborhood and should sell quickly if we get a decent number of eyes on it. Trying to avoid listing for a couple reasons but will resort to it if needed. TIA!

I went to a couple of these private listings. I think the main advantage is as a seller you limit the number of people going through your home. Also you don’t have to stage it or get professional photos done. You can still get a quick sale too for exactly what you want because this market is crazy after all. We were going to make an offer on one of those private listings yesterday but were beat out by ten minutes by someone who made an offer that was exactly what the sellers wanted and was at the top of our price point.

That said, if there’s any info you can share, I’d personally love to know more/connect with you as I’m obviously in the market for a home 😉

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hoping to sell off market. I know that Compass has private exclusive listings and I have talked to an agent about that. Seems like that could be somewhat limiting - as in you'll only see it if you're a buyer working with a Compass agent. Any other brokerages (or agents) that do off market or pre-market very well? Our house is in a highly desirable neighborhood and should sell quickly if we get a decent number of eyes on it. Trying to avoid listing for a couple reasons but will resort to it if needed. TIA!

Lol no they don’t. Completely unethical.

[Anonymous]

House next door sold for 2 mil in less than a day on open market. Compass realtor.