Selling off/pre-market with Compass or another brokerage

[Anonymous]

Some of the "sellers" for these Compass exclusive listings don't really even want to sell. I got run around by a couple Compass agents trying to force a deal to happen.

When they kept delaying the showing, I pressed the agent to give me a yes/no answer to whether it was actually for sale. The answer was no.

The Compass playboook is to find someone who isn't really selling and try to entice them with an offer. They try to create a deal with an ambivalent seller. Sometimes it works and sometimes they just bs the buyer and waste their time.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why people have such disdain for private listings. It can really simplify the selling process. The first time, we wanted $X for our house and told our realtor. She scheduled a few showings while we were out of town, then brought us a buyer who offered $X. We sold the house As Is - no fix up or prep, no inspections, and 4% total broker fees.

But you’ll never know if two other buyers would have offer 2% and 3% over X if they had also seen your house. That’s why this isn’t always a good deal for sellers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Compass has many, many private exclusive listings as do most of the larger brokerages. So "lol" at you. There is nothing unethical about it.

Actually, there is. It's a mechanism for taking advantage of unsophisticated and gullible sellers, no more, no less. No rational person wants less money for their property instead of more; "exclusive" listings practically guarantee a lower sales price based on simple market dynamics. It's incontrovertible that fewer buyers almost always means a lower price. Agents acting in the best interests of their clients will expose their listings to the widest possible market, not to a smaller number of buyers. The only reason to limit the buying pool is to maximize brokerage profit by keeping both the buy side and the sell side in-house. That does not benefit the seller, but the brokerage and its agents. That's unethical in my book unless the seller fully understand what they are giving up. I doubt most do, because they are acting against their own economic self-interest when they do so. They go for it because the brokerage has tricked them into thinking they'll do just as well financially with the exclusive listing, which is very unlikely.

So paranoid. The pros and cons of private exclusives are discussed in detail and then the sellers make their own decision about how they want to proceed. There is also a strategy to it that no one posting here has mentioned or seems to understand. No one is "tricking" anyone. And for the people making accusations that realtors do this to take both sides of the commission, you are also incorrect. Buyers are brought to private exclusives by their agent-the only way they would know about the listing bc they are not publicly marketed on MLS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Compass has many, many private exclusive listings as do most of the larger brokerages. So "lol" at you. There is nothing unethical about it.

Actually, there is. It's a mechanism for taking advantage of unsophisticated and gullible sellers, no more, no less. No rational person wants less money for their property instead of more; "exclusive" listings practically guarantee a lower sales price based on simple market dynamics. It's incontrovertible that fewer buyers almost always means a lower price. Agents acting in the best interests of their clients will expose their listings to the widest possible market, not to a smaller number of buyers. The only reason to limit the buying pool is to maximize brokerage profit by keeping both the buy side and the sell side in-house. That does not benefit the seller, but the brokerage and its agents. That's unethical in my book unless the seller fully understand what they are giving up. I doubt most do, because they are acting against their own economic self-interest when they do so. They go for it because the brokerage has tricked them into thinking they'll do just as well financially with the exclusive listing, which is very unlikely.

So paranoid. The pros and cons of private exclusives are discussed in detail and then the sellers make their own decision about how they want to proceed. There is also a strategy to it that no one posting here has mentioned or seems to understand. No one is "tricking" anyone. And for the people making accusations that realtors do this to take both sides of the commission, you are also incorrect. Buyers are brought to private exclusives by their agent-the only way they would know about the listing bc they are not publicly marketed on MLS.

No paranoia. Simple economic forces at work. Fewer buyers being aware of a property for sale means lower prices. More awareness means more potential buyers and higher prices. "Exclusive" listings means fewer buyers but bigger commissions for a single brokerage. It's simple. Not hard to understand. There is zero, no, absolutely no, benefit to sellers in proceeding this way. It's a con, based on the lure of the word "exclusive", which fools the rubes into thinking it's a special technique just for them. And it is. It's a technique to sel lhouses in a way which maximizes brokerage profit at the expense of seller returns. Put lipstick on it, it's still a pig.

[Anonymous]

Do you all go into cvs stores and tell people that they should be buying their stuff at 50% cheaper on Amazon? People make suboptimal decisions for various reasons all the time. If you don’t agree with those reasons, that’s fine. Just accept it and move on.

[Anonymous]

Long time Compass agent here. I can tell you that we sell almost 25% of our inventory in private exclusive status and those listings average a return of 4% higher than those solely advertised on the MLS. This is the case because buyers who submit offers on private exclusive listings understand that they have access to homes which are not publicly available. So you tend to get offers that are higher in price and with better terms. Similarly, since most Compass agents sell a ton of real estate and are very experienced, they know how to work collaboratively to get to the settlement table.

I use the private exclusive status as a way to test price and condition before going "live" on the MLS. I encourage my seller clients to specify their aspirational price when doing so. Sometimes it results in offers and sometimes my clients prefer to get additional exposure, but at the very least, they get a ton of information from me and my colleagues before doing so in order to give us the best positioning in the market. In many cases, between our weekly pricing tours in which we preview new off market listings in our office, private exclusive showings and Compass Broker opens, I can get at least 20 to 100 agents and clients through my listings before going on the MLS. I average 7 percent over list price because of it and don't believe you should ever need a price reduction if you understand data and pre-marketing.

[Anonymous]

The Chrissy & Lisa team in Lake Barcroft do this all the time. They have a long list of potential buyers, and a successful track record selling houses around the lake, so they often broker sales before things list in the MLS. If you want to buy in that neighborhood, you'd be a fool not to work with them. I know of other private listings with completely different brokerages, and the reason folks did it was convenience. Thus in my observation it seems to work when the brokerage has a large pool of prospective buyers and think they can capture both sides of the deal. Did any of the above sellers leave money on the table? Not much from what I know of both markets. But I think you really have to find the right agent/broker for the neighborhood to make it work.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering how long it would take until the actual Compass agents showed up, LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Compass has many, many private exclusive listings as do most of the larger brokerages. So "lol" at you. There is nothing unethical about it.

Actually, there is. It's a mechanism for taking advantage of unsophisticated and gullible sellers, no more, no less. No rational person wants less money for their property instead of more; "exclusive" listings practically guarantee a lower sales price based on simple market dynamics. It's incontrovertible that fewer buyers almost always means a lower price. Agents acting in the best interests of their clients will expose their listings to the widest possible market, not to a smaller number of buyers. The only reason to limit the buying pool is to maximize brokerage profit by keeping both the buy side and the sell side in-house. That does not benefit the seller, but the brokerage and its agents. That's unethical in my book unless the seller fully understand what they are giving up. I doubt most do, because they are acting against their own economic self-interest when they do so. They go for it because the brokerage has tricked them into thinking they'll do just as well financially with the exclusive listing, which is very unlikely.

So paranoid. The pros and cons of private exclusives are discussed in detail and then the sellers make their own decision about how they want to proceed. There is also a strategy to it that no one posting here has mentioned or seems to understand. No one is "tricking" anyone. And for the people making accusations that realtors do this to take both sides of the commission, you are also incorrect. Buyers are brought to private exclusives by their agent-the only way they would know about the listing bc they are not publicly marketed on MLS.

No paranoia. Simple economic forces at work. Fewer buyers being aware of a property for sale means lower prices. More awareness means more potential buyers and higher prices. "Exclusive" listings means fewer buyers but bigger commissions for a single brokerage. It's simple. Not hard to understand. There is zero, no, absolutely no, benefit to sellers in proceeding this way. It's a con, based on the lure of the word "exclusive", which fools the rubes into thinking it's a special technique just for them. And it is. It's a technique to sel lhouses in a way which maximizes brokerage profit at the expense of seller returns. Put lipstick on it, it's still a pig.

You are completely wrong again. There are many benefits to sellers. And, honestly no agent cares if his/her listing is sold by their brokerage. It doesn't benefit the agent in anyway. And you can now market private exclusives to any brokerage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Compass has many, many private exclusive listings as do most of the larger brokerages. So "lol" at you. There is nothing unethical about it.

Actually, there is. It's a mechanism for taking advantage of unsophisticated and gullible sellers, no more, no less. No rational person wants less money for their property instead of more; "exclusive" listings practically guarantee a lower sales price based on simple market dynamics. It's incontrovertible that fewer buyers almost always means a lower price. Agents acting in the best interests of their clients will expose their listings to the widest possible market, not to a smaller number of buyers. The only reason to limit the buying pool is to maximize brokerage profit by keeping both the buy side and the sell side in-house. That does not benefit the seller, but the brokerage and its agents. That's unethical in my book unless the seller fully understand what they are giving up. I doubt most do, because they are acting against their own economic self-interest when they do so. They go for it because the brokerage has tricked them into thinking they'll do just as well financially with the exclusive listing, which is very unlikely.

So paranoid. The pros and cons of private exclusives are discussed in detail and then the sellers make their own decision about how they want to proceed. There is also a strategy to it that no one posting here has mentioned or seems to understand. No one is "tricking" anyone. And for the people making accusations that realtors do this to take both sides of the commission, you are also incorrect. Buyers are brought to private exclusives by their agent-the only way they would know about the listing bc they are not publicly marketed on MLS.

No paranoia. Simple economic forces at work. Fewer buyers being aware of a property for sale means lower prices. More awareness means more potential buyers and higher prices. "Exclusive" listings means fewer buyers but bigger commissions for a single brokerage. It's simple. Not hard to understand. There is zero, no, absolutely no, benefit to sellers in proceeding this way. It's a con, based on the lure of the word "exclusive", which fools the rubes into thinking it's a special technique just for them. And it is. It's a technique to sel lhouses in a way which maximizes brokerage profit at the expense of seller returns. Put lipstick on it, it's still a pig.

You are completely wrong again. There are many benefits to sellers. And, honestly no agent cares if his/her listing is sold by their brokerage. It doesn't benefit the agent in anyway. And you can now market private exclusives to any brokerage.

It benefits the brokerage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the "sellers" for these Compass exclusive listings don't really even want to sell. I got run around by a couple Compass agents trying to force a deal to happen.

When they kept delaying the showing, I pressed the agent to give me a yes/no answer to whether it was actually for sale. The answer was no.

The Compass playboook is to find someone who isn't really selling and try to entice them with an offer. They try to create a deal with an ambivalent seller. Sometimes it works and sometimes they just bs the buyer and waste their time. [/

This is total BS. You think the Compass agent was trying to get you to write an offer on a house that wasn't for sale? The agent reached out to you, told you that a house was for sale when it wasn't, with the hope that you would write an offer sight unseen bc maybe the seller would then decide to sell? You want us to believe that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Compass has many, many private exclusive listings as do most of the larger brokerages. So "lol" at you. There is nothing unethical about it.

Actually, there is. It's a mechanism for taking advantage of unsophisticated and gullible sellers, no more, no less. No rational person wants less money for their property instead of more; "exclusive" listings practically guarantee a lower sales price based on simple market dynamics. It's incontrovertible that fewer buyers almost always means a lower price. Agents acting in the best interests of their clients will expose their listings to the widest possible market, not to a smaller number of buyers. The only reason to limit the buying pool is to maximize brokerage profit by keeping both the buy side and the sell side in-house. That does not benefit the seller, but the brokerage and its agents. That's unethical in my book unless the seller fully understand what they are giving up. I doubt most do, because they are acting against their own economic self-interest when they do so. They go for it because the brokerage has tricked them into thinking they'll do just as well financially with the exclusive listing, which is very unlikely.

So paranoid. The pros and cons of private exclusives are discussed in detail and then the sellers make their own decision about how they want to proceed. There is also a strategy to it that no one posting here has mentioned or seems to understand. No one is "tricking" anyone. And for the people making accusations that realtors do this to take both sides of the commission, you are also incorrect. Buyers are brought to private exclusives by their agent-the only way they would know about the listing bc they are not publicly marketed on MLS.

No paranoia. Simple economic forces at work. Fewer buyers being aware of a property for sale means lower prices. More awareness means more potential buyers and higher prices. "Exclusive" listings means fewer buyers but bigger commissions for a single brokerage. It's simple. Not hard to understand. There is zero, no, absolutely no, benefit to sellers in proceeding this way. It's a con, based on the lure of the word "exclusive", which fools the rubes into thinking it's a special technique just for them. And it is. It's a technique to sel lhouses in a way which maximizes brokerage profit at the expense of seller returns. Put lipstick on it, it's still a pig.

You are completely wrong again. There are many benefits to sellers. And, honestly no agent cares if his/her listing is sold by their brokerage. It doesn't benefit the agent in anyway. And you can now market private exclusives to any brokerage.

It benefits the brokerage.

Private listings can now be marketed to all brokerages. So, no, it doesn't necessarily benefit the brokerage at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I thought you must know me but we didn’t do an open house.

We did get an offer that was better than we could have gotten open market - it was a hot time and the buyers just wanted a house and to be done with it.

We didn’t do open market just because we weren’t ready to list and just wanted to be able to list when we were ready. Having this offer come in and having the upper hand on negotiating closing dates and other things was the benefit - essentially we could sell before we bought, and on our own time

[Anonymous]

WTH? Why would any seller be dumb enough to agree to this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WTH? Why would any seller be dumb enough to agree to this?

A lot of people do this for estate sales. Dad dies and you just want to get rid of the house, for example.