"Pocket listings" in residential real estate

 After recent antitrust rulings regarding residential real estate sales, big brokers are regrouping:

Yahoo finance has the story

The real estate world is fighting over secret listings and the future of how homes are sold

"Barely a year after the National Association of Realtors settled a lawsuit and rewrote the rules for how agents get paid, the powerful trade group is examining the fate of another policy that could change how homes are bought and sold across the country.

"The policy, known as Clear Cooperation, requires agents to list homes on shared databases known as multiple listing services (MLS) within one business day of beginning to market the properties. The rule is designed to cut down on what are known as “off-market” or “pocket” listings, where a home for sale is marketed semi-privately to small pools of potential buyers without being advertised widely on the MLS. 

"The NAR is currently reviewing whether the rule should be repealed, remain in place, or be changed.

...

"Where most real estate companies fall on the issue tends to align with whether or not they benefit from the rule. Executives at Zillow and Redfin, which aggregate home listings from the MLS, are for it. Compass, a luxury-focused brokerage that touts its access to “Private Exclusives,” is against it. Anywhere Real Estate, the parent company of franchises including Century 21, Coldwell Baker, and Sotheby's International Realty, has said it would like to see the rule remain but with changes.

Pocket listings are a relatively niche way to sell a home in most parts of the country. Data is scarce, but estimates generally put the deals at 5% or less of sales nationwide. Using deals that were listed as “sold” the same day they first appeared on the MLS as a proxy, Redfin estimates that they made up 1.8% of deals in mid-2024."