Why am I seeing so many houses for sale, but not listed on Zillow?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Zillow is an advertising company at its core and it does not prioritize accurate or up to date info. It used to be that they did not pull directly from the MLS and data was horribly delayed. Not sure if that has changed but I would never recommend anyone use Zillow as their main site.

If you are not sure, how can you make a suggestion?

Because there are a ton of other sites to use, so I don't understand why anyone uses Zillow. It is all marketing I guess. Use any sites that gets their feeds directly from the MLS: realtor.com, redfin, any brokerage website.

Zillow is fed from MLS too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

An office exclusive is when your home is sold by an agent, but not put on the MLS. Instead, it is shopped around where your agent works, or their "Brokerage.” Another word you might hear for this is a "pocket listing."

I can't recall so many of these before. Now there are several listed this way. Why would they do this?

We live in NW DC and there’s a ton of these here. Compass is the main culprit. It proliferated in the aftermath of the NAR legal settlement. If the listing doesn’t go on the MLS, agents can still collude on fees.

We’ve had a few threads on here about “exclusive” listings. They are almost never to the advantage of the seller.

All these threads innocently asking "what are these private exclusive signs?" are clearly agents trying to drum up business for that type of listing. It's so obvious they are trolls.

I think it's crazy. You need as many people as possible to see your house now, not just your agents' contacts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are houses for sale in our neighborhood. They have signs in front that say something like "office exclusive". Why is this happening and what does it mean? This is a SFH neighborhood in Fairfax County just outside the beltway FWIW.


As a seller, my take is that this benefits the agents somehow. I thought the exclusive listing was the way to go but all I got were lowball offers. I rejected them all even though the agent was saying he thought we should take the first one. Yeah, right.

A friend pointed out to me that the lowball offer only meant a few thousand less for the agent but a LOT less for us/the sellers.

Yes, be careful. I know a house where the realtor is selling low to a "friend" who is then going to renovate it and then resell it (and where the "friend" has agreed to resell using the same realtor because it's "I'll scratch your back if you scratch my back"). So that's definitely a new realtor scam out on these "private" listings.

[Anonymous]

^I don't know if that is legal, but it's definitely self dealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Zillow is an advertising company at its core and it does not prioritize accurate or up to date info. It used to be that they did not pull directly from the MLS and data was horribly delayed. Not sure if that has changed but I would never recommend anyone use Zillow as their main site.

If you are not sure, how can you make a suggestion?

Because there are a ton of other sites to use, so I don't understand why anyone uses Zillow. It is all marketing I guess. Use any sites that gets their feeds directly from the MLS: realtor.com, redfin, any brokerage website.

Zillow is fed from MLS too.

+1 Has been for a long time. I get Zillow notifications before I get the autoemails from my realtor sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many here say it’s not beneficial to the seller and can be even detrimental. Why do sellers agree to this then? They have many options for finding an experienced RE agent to sell their house without agreeing to this.

Because they're lazy and just want to get it done.

LOL. There's no difference in the workload for a private exclusive vs a MLS listing.

That’s absolutely not true when some houses get a dozen multiple offers.

[Anonymous]

"Private" and "Exclusive" are words used to invoke a mystique, suggesting to the gullible that they are getting access to something special, that they are uniquely privileged, whether as a seller or a buyer, setting themselves apart from the great unwashed masses. Suckers fall for that kind of thing; more sophisticated people recognize that what is actually going on is a deliberate restriction of the size of the buying pool, for no good or valid reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many here say it’s not beneficial to the seller and can be even detrimental. Why do sellers agree to this then? They have many options for finding an experienced RE agent to sell their house without agreeing to this.

Because they're lazy and just want to get it done.

LOL. There's no difference in the workload for a private exclusive vs a MLS listing.

That’s absolutely not true when some houses get a dozen multiple offers.

Private exclusives get multiples too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Private" and "Exclusive" are words used to invoke a mystique, suggesting to the gullible that they are getting access to something special, that they are uniquely privileged, whether as a seller or a buyer, setting themselves apart from the great unwashed masses. Suckers fall for that kind of thing; more sophisticated people recognize that what is actually going on is a deliberate restriction of the size of the buying pool, for no good or valid reason.

Why would an agent want to restrict the buying pool? So many allegations that agents do this for some self serving purpose but no one can answer why listing a home as a private exclusives benefits the listing agent more. And you're incorrect about suggesting that more sophisticated sellers don't sell this way. The sellers of my most recent PE were both attorneys making a boatload of money, intelligent and sophisticated people that chose te sell this way for multiple personal reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Private" and "Exclusive" are words used to invoke a mystique, suggesting to the gullible that they are getting access to something special, that they are uniquely privileged, whether as a seller or a buyer, setting themselves apart from the great unwashed masses. Suckers fall for that kind of thing; more sophisticated people recognize that what is actually going on is a deliberate restriction of the size of the buying pool, for no good or valid reason.

Why would an agent want to restrict the buying pool? So many allegations that agents do this for some self serving purpose but no one can answer why listing a home as a private exclusives benefits the listing agent more. And you're incorrect about suggesting that more sophisticated sellers don't sell this way. The sellers of my most recent PE were both attorneys making a boatload of money, intelligent and sophisticated people that chose te sell this way for multiple personal reasons.

Please share those reasons, which obviously didn't include exposing the property to the maximum possible number of potential buyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Private" and "Exclusive" are words used to invoke a mystique, suggesting to the gullible that they are getting access to something special, that they are uniquely privileged, whether as a seller or a buyer, setting themselves apart from the great unwashed masses. Suckers fall for that kind of thing; more sophisticated people recognize that what is actually going on is a deliberate restriction of the size of the buying pool, for no good or valid reason.

Why would an agent want to restrict the buying pool? So many allegations that agents do this for some self serving purpose but no one can answer why listing a home as a private exclusives benefits the listing agent more. And you're incorrect about suggesting that more sophisticated sellers don't sell this way. The sellers of my most recent PE were both attorneys making a boatload of money, intelligent and sophisticated people that chose te sell this way for multiple personal reasons.

So, tell us, why would an agent want to restrict the buying pool, which is what a pocket listing does? It certainly doesn't expose the property to the widest array of potential buyers, who might thereby competitively generate top dollar for the seller. So, why do it indeed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Private" and "Exclusive" are words used to invoke a mystique, suggesting to the gullible that they are getting access to something special, that they are uniquely privileged, whether as a seller or a buyer, setting themselves apart from the great unwashed masses. Suckers fall for that kind of thing; more sophisticated people recognize that what is actually going on is a deliberate restriction of the size of the buying pool, for no good or valid reason.

Why would an agent want to restrict the buying pool? So many allegations that agents do this for some self serving purpose but no one can answer why listing a home as a private exclusives benefits the listing agent more. And you're incorrect about suggesting that more sophisticated sellers don't sell this way. The sellers of my most recent PE were both attorneys making a boatload of money, intelligent and sophisticated people that chose te sell this way for multiple personal reasons.

So, tell us, why would an agent want to restrict the buying pool, which is what a pocket listing does? It certainly doesn't expose the property to the widest array of potential buyers, who might thereby competitively generate top dollar for the seller. So, why do it indeed?

Because it makes the job easier and keeps the entire commission in house within the agent’s brokerage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

An office exclusive is when your home is sold by an agent, but not put on the MLS. Instead, it is shopped around where your agent works, or their "Brokerage.” Another word you might hear for this is a "pocket listing."

I can't recall so many of these before. Now there are several listed this way. Why would they do this?

We live in NW DC and there’s a ton of these here. Compass is the main culprit. It proliferated in the aftermath of the NAR legal settlement. If the listing doesn’t go on the MLS, agents can still collude on fees.

We’ve had a few threads on here about “exclusive” listings. They are almost never to the advantage of the seller.

How does a pocket listing enable agents to "collude" on fees?

Because if the only agents who know it’s for sale are in your office, the buyer’s agent will also be in your office and your office will get all of the fees.

Zillow banned these, Homes.com allows them, there’s a big fight about it currently. Lots of articles if you google.

Pocket listings or private exclusives never benefit the seller.

A company cannot collude with itself, so this is just a silly take. It might be true that the Compass agents make more money if they are on both sides of the transaction, but that is (at most) an agency law problem, not an antitrust problem.

From Inman today:

Zillow slams Compass’ ‘hidden listing scheme’ in new court filing

“The portal giant countered arguments Compass had made in its complaint alleging antitrust activity and more, and asked the court to deny a request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent enforcement of Zillow’s new listing standards.”

Previously: