(CHEROKEE LAKE REALTY WRITES A WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE GRAINGER COUNTY JOURNAL NEWSPAPER. THIS WAS A RECENT QUESTION ASKED BY A READER.)
Yes, pocket listings are legal in Tennessee. However, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) frowns on them. The NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy requires that licensed real estate agents enter their listings in a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) within one business day of publicly marketing the property. This means posting a yard sign on the property, social media, flyers, email campaigns, placing on sites like Zillow, Craigslist, Marketplace, etc. If your agent does any of these, they are required to place it on the local MLS within the one-day rule.
So, what is a pocket listing and what are the advantages of doing this. A pocket listing is a listing that your agent will market privately to friends, personal contacts, and/or keep it within their real estate office only. No marketing to the general public.
One advantage is privacy. Your property is not advertised to the public. Less showings and foot traffic, no drive-by interest, no shared photos of the inside of your home. If you are a celebrity, a high-profile individual, or don’t want your neighbors to know that you are selling, a pocket listing is ideal and maintains your privacy. Some agents believe that they can test the market to a selective group of buyers and gauge interest and pricing without going public. My response to that is how do you test anything without a large sample of potential buyers? Any experiment is done with a large sample, not a limited sample.
Disadvantages? The big one is reduced exposure. Common sense dictates that if you have a product that you want to sell, in this case your property, you will want the world to know. In my opinion you either want to sell, or you don’t. So why do some agents recommend that you pocket list your home? And, please, this may not be the case with your agent. An agent may want to keep all the commission you are paying on your home without sharing some of it with another agent. They may know a potential buyer that they feel is perfect for your home and there is nothing wrong with them, not sharing the wealth if they have done all the work. Or they may wish to keep your listing within their brokerage and not share it with outside agents. Give their real estate firm first shot at selling the property, keep all the commission in-house. If you do go the pocket listing route you will find out soon enough if your agent has some private buyers lined up or not. If not, then I recommend you go public with your sale. I don’t do pocket listings. My job is to sell your property. If I must give some of the commission to another agent, so be it. But I have succeeded in what you contracted me to do – sell your property.
