Home Sellers Skeptical of Private Listings
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)
“Yeahhh its deffo a scam, don't click the link, just have them apply through Zillow's own screening tool directly.”
“Smells like a scam. I could write a book about all my scammy experiences renting my last apartment on Zillow. I have another apartment that a realtor lists for me for rent. That one was insane too. Video tours on Whatsapp, fake pay stubs, weird links, claims of losing an SSN but getting paid through social security... Good luck out there.”
“What are realtor fees looking like in Texas currently? Are we still paying both buyer/selling agents as the home seller? What are typical rates? What's fair vs disrespectful? submitted by /u/ahorsenamedjeff [link] [comments]”
“You all, real estate is a business, not a charity. I am genuinely surprised by the number of agents who are still showing homes without having a Buyer Representation Agreement in place before investing their time and expertise. I’m equally surprised when there is no structure addressing compensation for the professional time invested if a buyer ultimately chooses not to purchase or decides to work with someone else. Our time has value. Our knowledge has value. Our experience, availability, resea”
“Vegas, California, Seattle, Michigan. Have you ever just networked with them? Met them on site when viewing a property? Are you involved in networking groups? Do you provide feedback or advice on deals sent to you?”
“I’m currently doing a 10-day stay for a family with 3 dogs, and yesterday I was given less than 5 hours’ notice that a realtor would be coming through for a showing. They called wanting to speak with me immediately and followed up with multiple calls when I didn’t answer the first time—even though I had been texting the owner just minutes before and was already trying to call her back. I knew their home was on the market but was not told that any showings would happen while they were traveling.”
“I saw another post where someone did this and I would love some feedback on my listing. I don't want to give too much backstory, but we have been on the market since late June with no offers and have done a bunch of price drops. What are you seeing here that would be a roadblock to receiving an offer? https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3600-N-Three-Bs-And-K-Rd-Sunbury-OH-43074/463469097_zpid/ submitted by /u/missdelivered [link] [comments]”
“This. Anyone who cold calls me for an off-market property gets a fuck you price, and I know I'm not the only one who does this. However, I have seen some sweetheart deals start at landlord association meetings.”
“He may not even have a potential renter for you. The whole thing could be just a way to get you to agree to let him represent you.”
“If I were starting without wanting to spend thousands, I’d pick a few neighborhoods and get really consistent with driving them. The properties everyone can pull from the same database are usually the ones getting contacted by everyone else too.”
“I've been selling my townhome for 6 months now with our agent, and overall she's been good to work with. We listed at $515k per her advice, and have had to steadily drop the price over the last 6 months. 0 offers, maybe 4-5 showings per month. She's followed up with people that tour it and has talked to other agents, and will pass on recent feedback to us. So overall she's not doing a bad job at all. Location is Dallas, TX - Lower Greenville neighborhood, it's the middle unit”
“Fair "qualified" was the wrong word. All I have is a checkable reason to contact each one. And yeah, that's roughly the plan: be useful in Facebook groups and here first, then publish properly once I know what people actually push back on. The reason I still want the 12 first is that I don't know what the content should say yet. I think agents see the Linktree as a problem, but that's my assumption nobody has told me that. Twelve conversations tell me if it's real and h”
“I have agreed to pay after doing the math if it makes sense to get it rented sooner than later”
“Good to know. Thanks. Yeah I’ve had no issues renting this place out ever. But I am now a month from being vacant, and the guy who was supposed to tour this last weekend was a no show, so it does feel like I need to get someone lined up soon. But also not at that price.”
“Yeah I’ve never heard of it either but I see posts on here from landlords in NYC and Boston that say they do pay agents 1/2 months rent”
“I've had this happen before, they come in provide good tenants that fit all criteria, and ask for a fee. After I told them I'm self managing and am not looking for real estate agent help, suddenly their tenant has found a "better" home for cheaper. I know my local market, there's no better for cheaper. But it is what it is.”
“Report him. Who’s to say he even has a buyer ready to sign or that his client would get approved by you? If you don’t know who the renter is you haven’t done a background check. That being said if he’s legit, is it worth 2 weeks of hoping you find someone else?”
“If he wants a brokers fee he can talk to his actual client, not you. I’ve rented a few times in Michigan and never even heard of this.”
How many established realtors have you contacted and engaged with?
“I agree the odds are low of a rescinding and it’s a reasonable ask but I’d personally be more risk averse in these shoes. Even if there’s just a 1% chance of it happening I’d just take the offer and go esp because it’s at the end of the posted range.”
“this tracks. the cheap/fast crowd is usually a nightmare anyway, they haggle every milestone and treat revisions like you owe them. you're not narrowing your market, you're just filtering out clients who were never profitable to begin with the real risk isn't the positioning, it's not having proof yet. premium without a portfolio is just a price tag. id focus on getting 2-3 solid case studies out there, stuff that shows the quality jump, before leaning fully into the premium mess”
“Makes sense to me... save time and money attracts the buyer optimizing for cheapest, and those are usually the worst clients.”
“You are not wrong! I sent a formal complaint and received an email saying they closed because they didn’t find anything wrong. Granted at the time I did not have the text exchanges but I didn’t bother to resend it. Forget about fiduciary. As you wrote, all most of them care about is making a sale!”
“Exactly! We signed a contract where it said he was exclusively hired to work for our best interest and his priority loyalty was to us, who hired him. Trust was immediately lost when he declined to share full text exchanges. A prior realtor had absolutely no problem doing that. As a matter of fact she copied us on all communications which she preferred to be in writing. The only reason she gave up was because of the tenant’s behavior.”
Can I change the contract in a meaningful way and have them honor it?
“there is a sucker born every minute, and they are usually the ones that are looking for investing opportunities in promotional emails. good investments dont need to advertise.”
“They're not buyers but just curious people that are wasting your time. The solution is to show the price/investment upfront or add intentional friction so only qualified buyers make it through. You intentionally write copy that disqualifies the wrong people. Using price anchoring and investment language in your copy to repel unqualified prospects. That's it”
“Thank you! I would also add that if a seller is being weird or delaying this, thats a big flag”
“Selling a house from several hours away has me thinking more about the logistics than the actual sale. I can't just stop by whenever something needs to be done, so I'm trying to figure out what kind of person I should trust with the property locally. The house doesn't need anything unusual and the legal/family stuff is already taken care of. My bigger concern is finding someone who can actually keep things moving while I'm away. If a cleaner needs to come in, photos need to be sc”
“For those of you posting your listings on FB market place, are you generating any decent leads from it? I don’t have a lot of hope that qualified buyers are going to be finding g the house on there, tell me if I’m wrong, but I see it as a potential buyer lead generator and I’m curious if it’s worth inputting the listing and keeping it up to date? submitted by /u/Patrick___1 [link] [comments]”
“The other side is education for realtors and LL's. I can't believe the amount of clients I've gotten because some realtor told a LL we don't have a choice, we have to do X in the contract for a voucher renter. No, no you don't. You treat them like anyone else and write the contract accordingly. Then enforce it.”
“The money math is the bigger deterrent. Wholesaling only works if there's enough room in the price. Hardly ever case with on-market properties.”
“If they ask, tell them youre new and have them try you our for a week or two so they can see for themselves.”
“Called an expired and he said the property didn't sell because it needs cleaned up. He has his property manager working on it and they also sell but he hasn't signed anything with them. We're going to reconnect in a couple of days. He's not local so no appointment necessary. Do i just call and ask if he's ready to put it back on the market? Seems so simple that I'm questioning if it's right lol submitted by /u/itsbdk [link] [comments]”
“That seems unlikely but I could link to my social and website if they want to check me out.”
“No that’s wholesalers. I’m a developer. But the point remains that if you think that probably a lot of agents think that so I get screened out.”
“Can you establish a relationship with an investor friendly agent? Let them make a little off the purchase and let them list/sell the finished product and most will be happy to work with you.”
Based on other comments here the fee pitch puts up flags for the LA
“Wholesaling doesn't work at market price. The whole point is to keep it off market. If it's listed, wholesaling is already off the table.”
“Yes this. I’m getting screened out. I’ve bought a bunch on the MLS but somehow I passed the filter. To be fair, I’m saying these agents don’t even answer the phone call. They know nothing about who’s calling and they are in a sales job and they still don’t take the call. I guess they are waiting to see if it’s a serious useful call before they call back. Also, I’m making offers on listings where it’s advertised for investors. So it would be weird if they are screening out a Builder developer whe”
“Ha ha that’s a little harsh, but a fair point. If you read the other comments in here, I think it points to the issue being more so that they think there’s a lowball offer coming from me shortly.”
“You may be onto something there. Even though it technically adds extra commissions to be paid, it sounds like the system is rigged to where the agents will play better in the sandbox and the seller kind of never knows the difference. In their mind, they are already paying 6% so the prospect of saving half of that kind of never makes it to the negotiation table.”
“It saves everyone time to have a quick call first. Discuss offers thus far and what I’m thinking. Plus I usually have questions about the property.”
“This is probably the answer. How do I edit it to get in the door? I’m usually 3-5% under if I’m bothering to call. Not lowball.”
“In what way? Like their offers usually fall out? Do I need to tell people I buy 12 properties per year so they take it seriously?”