A complete guide to understanding pocket listings

According to BatchService and ResiClub AnalyticsThere were approximately 1.2 million “pocket listings” or off-market real estate sales in the United States in 2024, with the vast majority taking place in Texas and Florida. Pocket listings are more common in some parts of the country than others, but it’s important to be familiar with them no matter where you are.

In this article, we discuss the definition of a pocket listing, the pros and cons for both brokers and sellers, and how to trade off-market legally and ethically. Plus, we’ll give you marketing ideas for promoting your pocket listings.

What is a pocket listing in real estate?

A pocket listing – also called a silent listing, off-MLS or off-market listing – is a property that is for sale but not listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Instead, the property is marketed privately through the agent’s network, direct contacts or exclusive platforms.

Over the years, the term “pocket listing” has taken on a negative connotation as people sometimes think that this is just a strategy used by sleazy agents to double-side a transaction and not get the highest price for the seller. to get. While I’m sure there are cases where this is unfortunately the case, there are legitimate reasons why selling off-market is in the seller’s best interest.

The pros and cons of pocket listings for agents

• Potential for double-sided. The chance that the listing agent will sell a pocket listing to a direct buyer without their own agent increases enormously with pocket listings. This can translate into a higher commission depending on how your contract with the seller is written.
• A reason to call your buyer leads. An off-market listing is a great excuse to call all those buyer leads in your database. By selling a pocket listing, you position yourself as a successful real estate agent with valuable information that these buyers would not otherwise have access to.

• More work. The inability to leverage the reach of the MLS and all aggregator websites to promote a pocket listing means it’s up to you, as the listing agent, to spread the word. We’ll give you ideas on how to do this in a later section. It can certainly be done, but it’s a heavier lift than a traditional sale.
• Fewer marketing opportunities. A major benefit for agents who work with sellers is the incredible marketing opportunities that come with each listing: a yard sign, open houses, social media content, neighborhood door knocks – these are just some of the many ways you can use Create your MLS listings to find more customers. Most, if not all, opportunities are lost with pocket listings.

The pros and cons of pocket listings for sellers

• Ease: Especially for an occupied property, it is more convenient if fewer buyers come by; the sellers have to make the property ‘show-ready’ less often.
• Privacy. Some sellers don’t want their neighbors to know they are selling. During our first meeting, a salesperson asked me to park down the street so his neighbors wouldn’t see my car in his driveway and ask him if he was selling anything. This may be especially true for luxury homeowners who do not want the inside of their home published on the Internet.
• Celebrity-friendly. Selling as a pocket listing is a popular choice for athletes and celebrities who need more discretion, often using LLCs instead of their names to buy and sell real estate.
• Health. Since there are normally no weekends of open houses and dozens of private showings on pocket listings, fewer buyer germs will enter the home. For some sellers, this is a major concern, and off-market selling may make sense.

• Lower sales price (potential). There is a risk that sellers are leaving money on the table because they are not maximizing their property’s exposure to the largest possible number of buyers. Normally, the more buyers see a home, the more offers the sellers will receive and the higher those offers will be. Of course, this isn’t always the case, but sellers considering a pocket listing should be aware of this.
• Longer term to sell. Because pocket listings are not published through MLS or published on the top real estate websites, they usually take longer to sell. It takes longer to market the property to enough buyers to find the right buyer willing to offer the right price.

How to Market Your Pocket Listings

Marketing pocket listings present a unique set of challenges compared to a traditional listing. You don’t have the option of syndication and broad reach for every buyer match in your MLS, so you’ll have to get creative. Here are our best ideas for promoting your pocket listings:

• Start with the buyers you already have. Maybe your new pocket listing will suit one of your existing buyers who has been looking for the perfect home for months. If so, excellent! Make sure you follow local guidelines on dual agency.
• Pick up the phone. Yes, it’s old fashioned. Yes, it works. And yes, I did it myself. For those of you who dread making calls, let me assure you, these are the easiest conversations to have. Other agents will greatly appreciate you telling them about a new piece of inventory they can share with their buyers, especially if you are in a strong seller’s market with low inventory. Other real estate agents are your most likely source for finding a buyer for your off-market listing.

• Share your pocket entries with your office. Most agents have a place internally to promote off-market listings (ours is a Facebook group exclusively for our agents).
• Share them with other local offices. It may feel a little strange, but you can absolutely call or stop by other agents with your pocket listing information and ask the manager/receptionist to share it with their agents.
• Organize an open house for real estate agents. Invite all agents you talk to; this gives your listing more exposure while staying out of the public MLS. Of course, you need the approval and blessing of your sellers for this.
• Post your listings in as many local agent-to-agent third-party Facebook groups as you can find. In my market, there are at least four groups where I post all of our off-market listings, as well as all of our coming soon listings. If your market doesn’t have such groups, create your own!

Are pocket listings legal and ethical?

Yes, if done correctly. Make sure you cover all your basics and are on the same page with your salesperson on every aspect of marketing. For example, confirm that they don’t want a sign in the yard or postcards sent to their neighborhood. Every situation and every salesperson is different, so have these conversations up front to set expectations.

As long as you are 100% transparent with your seller about the pros and cons of pocket listings, you can rest assured that you are acting ethically. Ultimately, it is up to the seller to decide how they want to direct you to market their property. Just as there is nothing unethical about a seller buying a For Sale sign at Home Depot and posting it in the yard themselves, there is nothing unethical about sellers instructing you to market their listing privately.

Although pocket listings are technically legal in all 50 states, the nuances and rules surrounding pocket listings vary from state to state and from MLS to MLS. In 2020, NAR banned pocket listings, requiring all listings to be entered into MLS within 24 hours of signing the listing agreement. However, there are solutions for sellers who really don’t want to advertise publicly.

In the Boston area where I am based, we have a one-page document that sellers sign next to the listing agreement paperwork stating that they acknowledge that their listing will not be listed in MLS – we call this a non-MLS -form. Contact your broker and make sure you follow the law and your broker’s guidelines.

How to find pocket listings

You may be wondering how to find pocket listings. For the uninitiated, let me explain. Pocket listings are not necessarily something we as agents strive for; rather, they are a useful tool or offering that you can present to your merchant customers when the situation calls for it. There are actually no specific ways to target sellers who prefer to sell off-market, other than networking with ultra-high net worth clients. If you’re already a luxury real estate agent, you probably have a disproportionate number of clients who would be interested in pocket listings.

However, providing this path to selling a home can be a tempting conversion tool: a unique service you can offer to convert a seller pipe in one client — Pocket listings are not intended as a way to generate leads. Ideally, you want to expose each listing to as much sunlight (and potential buyers) as possible, unless the unique circumstances I’ve described in this article call for a different approach.

The full picture

While pocket listings aren’t the best choice for every seller and come with their own obstacles for the agent, knowing how to talk about them and market them is a useful tool. You might suggest this as an option when you meet a seller for whom a pocket listing sale would make sense.

No matter how much entities like your local MLS or REALTOR board try to ban pocket listings, there will always be seller situations that are best served by a more private sale. I don’t see paperback listings disappearing for good anytime soon. Stay transparent, do what’s right for your customer and follow local guidelines: that’s the most important thing.