Home Sellers Skeptical of Private Listings
87 posts across 13 communities in the last 30 days; 43% from r/realtors.
“I’m new and have no sales yet. There are a few very established agents in my area who get the majority of the listings, especially in my neighborhood. All of them are at different brokers including myself. Im debating reaching out and asking 1 or 2 of them if they would be…”
“Or a realtor that has access to the MLS [re: [Landlord - US-VA] Renting out my condo for the first time on my own. It's painful.]”
“That's a strong position, honestly. Industry experience beats a "unique hook" every time. You already speak the language, you know who the buyers are and what pisses them off about current suppliers. Most lead gen people fail because they're generic, you're starting with the one…”
Home sellers are experiencing confusion and skepticism regarding private listing networks and promises of increased revenue. They feel misled by the suggestion that keeping a property off the open market will generate special demand or higher prices, highlighting a lack of transparency and potential exploitation. This creates distrust and uncertainty in the selling process.
SOURCES (60)
“if you have "a system", you have a cost drag that the OP doesn't account for. Look, I like RE. I invest in RE. but the OP is selling hopium and your post isn't far from it, either. The steelman for RE is, imo, is…”
“Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm just here to research. From the math that I'm hearing, agents are only getting something like 8 leads per month. They have to get 10% of them preapproved through Zillow Home Loans or they get bumped off. From what I know, in Zillow's "live phone call lead" days, the close rate was 4-5%. Now, many of the leads come in as text messages to claim via Showingtime requests on the Follow Up Boss app. If this is true, it means you don't have liv”
“I looked into the exact same thing and came to the same conclusion. They charge you way more if it's an investment property [re: Bought 2 rental properties that will bring in $2,600 to 2,700 a month in income]”
“I’m new and have no sales yet. There are a few very established agents in my area who get the majority of the listings, especially in my neighborhood. All of them are at different brokers including myself. Im debating reaching out and asking 1 or 2 of them if they would be willing to let me host any open houses they don’t have time for and just being honest and saying im new and looking for leads. Is this a good idea? Is being at a different broker an issue for that? I am afraid this will immedi”
“I’ve been in real estate for 4.5 years and have about 21 closed transactions. Of the 21 about 5 were listings. I heavily relied on Zillow but doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore and I am not with a company that has the other options. Idk what to do to generate business. I’m constantly posting on FB so my sphere sees but thats like waiting around for business. I need to look for business Let’s say I wanted a listing within the next 30 days and keep it going, what would 1 do? Should I cold call exp”
“California agent here. We’re over 30 days into escrow, already three weeks delayed due to the buyer’s side, and my elderly sellers’ replacement purchase depends on this sale closing. Buyers have removed inspection and appraisal contingencies but refuse to remove their loan contingency, despite their lender confirming in writing they’re clear to close and loan docs being ordered. When I pressed their agent today, she said she’s asked the buyers to sign the removal so many times that they now thin”
“Is it common for a realtor to charge the buyer 1% and the seller pay 2%? Closing costs are a bit high and the 1% on top of that adds quite a bit… submitted by /u/Inevitable_Rise_8669 [link] [comments]”
“Or a realtor that has access to the MLS [re: [Landlord - US-VA] Renting out my condo for the first time on my own. It's painful.]”
“In my neighborhood, some bozo picked up a house from auction for $440k, somewhat shoddily renovated it over the course of 14mo, and then listed it for $2.2M... It's been sitting on the market now for 15 months, and they've dropped the price to $1.09M I view this as a microcosm of the prevailing flipper mindset over this era. In my opinion, the house will likely move/sell at ~$850k. My guess is they'll be lucky to clear a $100k profit (which comes out to a ~5.4% annual return, btw). I”
“This is a lot of the reason I'm willing to give up 80% of the first month's rent to have a licensed Realtor do it. They get all the constant ghosting and have a system in place for quickly eliminating obviously bad prospects. Any decent prospects they have get sent to me before they start doing the background check. I hear people complain on this site all the time about how much money it costs to hire someone to list and PM your rental but to me it's well worth it. [re: [Landlord - U”
“Seriously, think about what we do. Seller: "My neighbor sold for $650,000 in 2022." Buyer: "I'm waiting for rates to get back to 3%." Seller: "I don't want to give my house away." Buyer: "I'll offer 20% below asking and ask them to cover closing costs." Seller: "Why hasn't my house sold? It's been 11 days." Buyer: "I love the house, but I'm going to wait and see what happens." And somewhere in the middle of all t”
“Scenario: condo price cuts by 20k, we jump on it and make an offer. Inspection contingent of course. Serious problems with the porch. Without a contractor appraisal, realtor assesses $5k off. But inspector discovers undisclosed fire damage in the attic (we doubt the current owners knew, house is over 100 years old and was condo-ized about 20 years ago) We get another inspector to look at the damage. 6-8 boards and a joiner need sistering or replacing. He says he is not a contractor but estimates”
“Colorado broker here. Curious how other agents handle this conversation. Say a sewer scope finds about $12,000 worth of work. The seller won’t repair it before closing, but they’ll give the buyer a credit off the price of the home for the estimated amount. On paper, that sounds fair. But the buyer still takes on the risk. The final bill could be higher, the repair could uncover something else, and they have to deal with all of it right after moving in. Even if they have the cash, it could leave”
“That's a strong position, honestly. Industry experience beats a "unique hook" every time. You already speak the language, you know who the buyers are and what pisses them off about current suppliers. Most lead gen people fail because they're generic, you're starting with the one thing they can't copy. Window coverings is also a great niche for this because the buyer pool is super targeted: interior designers, contractors, property managers, hotels doing refreshes. They&”
“I've never had an issue negotiating my commission. I've reduced my commission many times and I have never asked a buyer to cover the difference when a seller offers less than our agreed compensation. Recently, I've connected with an investor who has multiple properties to sell, potentially including his personal home valued at over $1.5M. Obviously, a relationship I'd love to build! However, he's made several comments along the lines of, "I don't mean to discount wha”
“Matching one property across sources sounds trivial until you try it. MLS has one address format, the county assessor has another, and the recorder uses a third. “123 N Main St Unit 4” and “123 North Main #4” are the same place to a person and two different records to a database. Parcel numbers don’t help much either. APN formats differ by county, some drop leading zeros, some add dashes, and parcels get split or merged over time, so the ID you matched on last year may not exist now. Most tools”
“I plan on calling tomorrow, but it'd be cool if there were any knowledgeable redditors who had insight. My home is my business location, which I definitely don't want on any public search related to my business. submitted by /u/usernamesarehard223 [link] [comments]”
“Its been over 20 years since we last sold a house. A lot in the real estate industry has changed. For example, the wide angle photos that have been photo shopped. We listed our house 3 months ago. We know our house is an antique. While the house is structurally sound and has many original details intact it does need a good finish carpetner to install baseboards, door and window trim. Kitchen had been updated with high end appliances by previous owner, and includes new kraftmaid cabinets. When we”
“Yes but you don't necessarily need to if you're dealing with a smaller scale. Zillow has a "Saved responses" (or equivalent i forget the exact naming) where you can preload a message to send to everyone as needed & TurboTenant (other softwares do also exist but TT is the one I use for now) have a built in pre-qualification. [re: [Landlord US-FL] First time landlord looking for best approach with Zillow]”
“Pretty straightforward question. Just curious what the take is on Reddit. I’m going to have a conversation with my client tomorrow, regardless. submitted by /u/whyamionthispanel [link] [comments]”
“If I plan to door knock and hand out a fall pop-by bag with my card and some goodies inside, what happens if they say they are already working with an agent? Can I leave the bag with my card and say something along the lines of “if it doesn’t work out with them, I’d be happy to help” or would that still be considered soliciting? Do I just leave without giving them anything? Or? submitted by /u/juicydreamer [link] [comments]”
“Hey guys just looking for some advice on what’s going on/what I can do about this. I’m from a more rural area and most of the time with the open houses I do in my home town it’s no issue getting people to show up. I run paid adds on face book and usually at least 2-3 people will stop by to take a look (often referencing the add directly). If nothing else you can usually count on at least one nosey neighbor stopping which gets the word out a little bit and may (through word of mouth) get someone”
“If buyers have a prequalified and preapproval from a bank why are realtors demanding proof of funds? Honestly it’s intrusive and as someone who negotiates for a living, net worth is no one’s business and gives information out in the negotiation process that sucks. 😳 submitted by /u/Momsterguurl [link] [comments]”
“Hire an agent. The fees are minimal. They’ll post it on MLS. Zillow, Apartments.com, Redfin, and all other platforms pull their data from MLS. I’d also give fb marketplace a shot. [re: [Landlord US-IL] Unable to find tenants. Need advice.]”
“Recently i've been getting contacted out of the blue by companies offering to buy my house. (We haven't listed it for sale). The company will send you a vague SMS, addressing you by name, and introducing themselves by first name only making it seem like maybe they're an old friend just checking in. Has anyone had experience dealing with these people? One in specific that seems very aggressive is crazyhomebuyers by david arlen nelson II and honestly it seems very scammy and they repea”
“That off-site verification link would make me cautious too. I'd avoid clicking it or uploading any documents through it, and contact Zillow through its official website to confirm whether the message is legitimate. Keeping communication on the platform until you've verified the inquiry is a sensible precaution. For the tenant-screening process itself, I'd use consistent verification steps for every applicant and keep records organized. Rent With Clara may be worth exploring as a tena”
“I’ve had 4 deals fail inspection in the last 30 days- all crawlspace / foundation issues. All these were older homes. The buyers knew conceptually that older homes could have issues, but they either did not want to pay for newer construction homes or could not afford them. I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place because I can tell them that an old house is going to have issues, and I can tell them what to expect. They don’t believe me then they spend $500 on an inspection to confir”
“Just curious as to why the realtor may have been ignoring my reaching out and genuine show of interest. I took the disclosures, looked through them and came up with a list of follow up questions which got ignored. I only found out the change in status when I reached out today. She also seemed more aloof than usual at the open house as well which leads me to believe it already may have had an offer? But that also seems strange. Any insights from professionals? Anything I should have done to make”
“I saw the recent lawsuit was dismissed. I spoke to an agent recently who said it's back but haven't seen anything online about it. So that said, for those of you on Preferred, how are you making sure you are RESPA compliant so that you don't get hit with a Steering complaint? From my understanding, Zillow Preferred agents could be penalized if they don't get enough prequals through ZHL. I saw a Zillow spokesperson say: "Buyers on Zillow are always in control of which agent a”
“Selling house in South Florida (Pool, covered patio, Out door Kitchen, Dog run on side of house, all pavers in back yard which is grandfathered in but cant be done now in by law). *Edit: company is called Capital Home Buyers. Based in South Florida Anyway they came and looked after sending a check we would have cashed but of course they low balled it (and the guy was also his own real estate business and either wanted to list it or us sell it buyer financed. NOPE) but we have been going about ta”
“Done it three times now, first sale was a flat fee listing and it sold in a week. Second one took 6 weeks but I saved something like 30k. The MLS access is the only real hurdle and flat fee services handle that fine. Buying without an agent is where it gets weird. Some listing agents flat out refused to show us properties because they'd have to do more work with no guarantee we'd even make an offer. One guy literally hung up when I said we were unrepresented. The rebate agent suggestion”
“Basics: million plus home in a FEMA flood zone, sizable commission. Property goes from a peninsula to an island under some storm conditions. The house itself does NOT flood, but it's pretty alarming when you see it the first time. The sellers were self-represented, and were clear that some of the property flooded during certain types of storms like a nor'easter. They sent the buying real estate agent pictures and videos of what it looked like when it was really bad. The sellers wanted to”
“Ive been a realtor for a few years now and the whole fuggin kaboodle is a sham. Imagine giving a group of people the ability to set prices on property that they dont own or have no personal stake in and they take 3-6% of the sale each time a house sells. Sellers will try to offset this commission cost and raise the price just a bit more. Naturally prices will raise just from that alone. Say a house is worth 200k but a seller wants to offset that commission cost, they now set the price at 212k (+”
“Realtors are involved in both sides. Last market value estimate I received a year ago was for 3m. In any case, point is well taken that open market can aid in price discovery.”
“We are on the market as sellers for the first time outside of Covid craze and I'm trying to get a better idea of where we stand with our house. We are in a MCOL area, we listed this past sunday for $300k (been on the market about 2.5 days right now). We've had 4 showings already, and a 5th scheduled tomorrow. We also recieved an offer from the 2nd showing, though it isn't exactly what we wanted. They originally said no wiggle room, we declined, they offered again and found $7k of wig”
“Let me ask another example, then. I have a place I am looking at that is new construction, <3 years, 700k on the market, two years. It is a 2-unit multi-family home that has both sides rented out at $5100 (2500 and 2600). The tenants pay all utilities; we would be paying for property tax + homeowners insurance. Wife and I were debating whether to go the DSCR loan for it or to purchase it outright and then continue renting it. Thoughts on whether it is a good idea to pursue a DSCR versus a reg”
“I listed my house for sale in June. Listing contract ran from 060126 through 093026. Personally, I thought my realtor was terrible. The amount she said to list the home at was too high $345k, when new construction homes are going for $340k. My house is only 10 years old, well maintained and looks new. Neutral interior. Prior to sell I replaced roof with class IV architectural shingles, replaced the AC unit and had exterior of house repainted. She did not list any of these items in the listing. M”
“I've heard he was involved with 2-3 leads. None resulted in anything. One wanted "too high a price" for their home. Well duh, that's the most common.”
“A small number of qualified prospects is far more valuable than a large number of unqualified prospects. I'm a multifamily broker in Denver and recently had a client with the same issue. My advice was to do what the professional managers do - application first, showing upon approval.”
I like the term "recreational viewers." I called them "looky loos."
“Well, as it says- we had an offer accepted & the agent wants to still list the home as active & show it. We already had this happen once & they had a better offer in before we could even sign the counter offer. Looking for some insight or others who have possibly been in a similar situation with a home sale contingency. Did it work out? Did it not? I feel like it’s hard to be excited about it knowing that someone could take the property on a better offer all the way til close date. W”
“I totally get that but I'm not wasting time and money showing the place to people I know I don't want to rent to.”
“You've got it backwards. Appraising lower than the purchase price blows up deals. Higher rarely does anything negative. 50% of the time homes appraise for more than the sale value. 40% of the time it appraises at sale price. If you appraise for less than the sale price, you paid well over what you should have. Sometimes that’s necessary and known going into it though and the buyer is willing to swallow that to get into a house. You’re right that appraisers don’t want to blow up deals, so the”
“Oh my mistake. Whenever i looked into them i found the listing costs to be an absolute dealbreaker. whatre they running these days? Maybe ill yake another look..”
“A lot of people are struggling and even though you're posting the price at what you feel is fair, it might be that people in your market find it very expensive still and might just not be able to afford that”
“I’ve done many open houses over the 3 years I’ve been a realtor and very occasionally someone will answer a follow up but I’ve never gotten under contract from one, except when I was hosting at my own listing as the listing agent. My office is constantly pushing us to hold open houses on the office team’s listings. I’m torn between giving it up as a lead source because maybe I’m just not that good at it or doubling down and doing 2-3 a week instead of usually just one. My question is, for only o”
“What I just have to show it to anyone. That's ridiculous. It's 30 minutes from my house. It costs me $20 to go there. I have credit and income requirements posted in my listing. I'm asking people to fill out the application before I show now because people kept lying about their credit on their renter profile.”
“Zillow's filters have been SO aggressive. The "good neighbor" nonsense isn't just catching bots, it's heavily policing how people word things, it sucks. They have blocked out at least two actual human leads on my current listing, and by the time it was sorted, they were gone. They let three bots through that I detected. And other than that, I haven't gotten shit from them, for the first time ever. I also got a fake Zillow email and sent it to their spam support email.”