What Is a Pocket Listing?

San Fernando Valley Real Estate Podcast with Scott Himelstein

Pocket listings can relieve a great deal of stress from the seller. However, there are several things to consider before listing in this way.

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Today I wanted to talk to you a little bit about pocket listings. A pocket listing is one that the seller intends to sell but hasn’t yet officially listed or put into the MLS.

Therefore, these listings won’t be found anywhere online. When it comes to a listing like this, the seller has often met with an agent who they’ve asked to find them a buyer.

Pocket listings have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. One of the biggest advantages is that you can maintain your privacy throughout the sale.

Since pocket listings aren’t readily available to just anyone in the public, you have a lot more control over who sees your property and who sees your home.

Pocket listings can work very well depending on your circumstances.

This also means you have fewer buyers and fewer showings to deal with. Days on market is much less of an issue for this kind of listing since they aren’t on the MLS.

When my team and I work with these kinds of properties, we put them on something called the off-market property list. As soon as a person tells us they’re interested, we do our best to match the listing with homebuyers who we’re working with.

This has been very successful for us and many of our sellers. However, there are clear disadvantages to pocket listings. While fewer buyers do mean less stress, it also means that certain benefits associated with higher exposure are greatly reduced.

With pocket listings, our full, aggressive marketing package doesn’t work. These kind of listings naturally see less activity and foot traffic.

Ultimately, pocket listings can work very well depending on your circumstances. The decision whether or not to list in this way is really up to the seller—as only they can truly know and understand their individual situation.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.