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The pro-private-listing camp has polished its talking points, coach Darryl Davis writes. Here is how to address them, point by point.
You are going to hear it on listing appointments. A seller sits across from you and says, “My neighbor’s agent told her she should list privately first. Shouldn’t I do the same?”
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The private listing camp has gotten good at making its case. They have analogies, talking points and well-rehearsed arguments. The problem is that not one of them holds up.
What to say when your seller asks about private listings
Here is what they will say and exactly how to respond.
‘We should test the market before going on the MLS.’
Keeping a home inside one company’s network is not testing the market. That is a focus group. The market is every agent, representing every buyer, across every company. You test it by putting the home in front of all of them and letting the offers tell you the answer.
An agent who tells you they need to “test” the price is telling you they do not know how to price the home. When a bank sends an appraiser to evaluate a property, they do not “test the market.” They study comparable sales and determine a value. If your pricing requires a trial run, that is not a strategy. That is a red flag.
And a failed private test does not reset. That history follows the listing to MLS, and the first question from every buyer’s agent becomes, “If it was so great, why didn’t it sell?”
‘It creates buzz, like Apple launching a new product.’
Apple’s launch strategy works because they have 1.4 billion active device users who are primed, loyal and waiting. Your seller’s home has no fan base, no waitlist and no decade of brand loyalty. Nobody knows it exists until you market it.
Apple does not show their new product quietly in a back room to 30 people and call it a launch. They broadcast to the entire world simultaneously. A private listing is the back room. The MLS is the broadcast.
‘It is like a movie trailer, teasing before the big release.’
A real movie trailer floods theaters nationwide, streaming platforms and television — reaching millions simultaneously. A private listing “teaser” only goes to one company. That is not a trailer. That is a private screening for the staff.
The real equivalent? Put it on MLS, let the entire market know your house is for sale, but tell everyone offers will be heard at a later date, perhaps one or two weeks. Now that is a trailer creating buzz.
‘Luxury brands like Rolex and Hermès use scarcity. Your home should, too.’
Every luxury brand manufactures hundreds or thousands of identical units. They can limit supply because more are coming off the assembly line tomorrow. Your seller’s home is one of a kind — one lot, one floor plan, one view. Scarcity already exists naturally. You cannot manufacture what is already irreplaceable.
Here is what the analogy leaves out: Rolex does not limit how many people know they exist. The whole world knows Rolex. Even Coach launched an official Amazon storefront to reach more customers on the world’s largest marketplace. If luxury brands understand that more visibility drives more revenue, why would you accept less visibility for your most valuable asset?
What drives price for a rare property is not artificial scarcity. It is buyer competition — and competition only happens when buyers know the home exists.
‘Builders sell hundreds of thousands of homes without the MLS.’
Small and mid-size builders absolutely use the MLS. It is the first place they go. The builders who skip it are national corporations with hundreds of millions in advertising budgets, television campaigns and on-site sales teams working seven days a week.
Your seller already has a multimillion-dollar marketing platform — it is called the MLS. It delivers the same massive exposure that those corporations spend fortunes to create. The MLS closes that gap entirely.
‘94% of our sold homes end up on the MLS anyway.’
The key word is sold. That statistic is calculated from sold listings only — not all listings taken. Failed, expired and withdrawn listings disappear from the equation.
Think of it this way: A weight-loss program enrolls 100 people. Only 50 lose weight. Of those 50, 94 percent join a gym afterward and maintain their weight loss. The company advertises: “Ninety-four percent of people who lost weight kept it off.” Technically true. Profoundly misleading — because only 47 out of 100 who started actually kept the weight off.
The same math applies here. “Ninety-four percent of our sold homes went to MLS” could mean only 47 out of every 100 listings taken actually sold. The rest were tested privately, did not sell and never made it into the calculation.
The final point to make
There are a plethora of studies that prove MLS listings sell for more money, and zero studies that show private listings sell for more. When a seller brings you one of these arguments, do not get defensive. Acknowledge that the analogies sound appealing, then calmly explain why each one fails. The data is on your side.
Finish with this:
“What that other agent wants to do is limit your exposure. What I want to do is stand on top of a mountain with a megaphone and make sure every buyer within listening distance knows your home is for sale. When Christie’s auctions a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, they don’t take it to a basement with 12 bidders. They take it to the world. The MLS is your Christie’s. Let’s use it.”
