Part one: should I sell my house off-MLS?

If you’re thinking about putting your home on the market, you may also be wondering if you should do so off of the Multiple Listing Service. Also known as pocket listings, these were once far less common, but have been heating up lately with the growing competitiveness of the market.

We at Paragon have put together a guide to the pros and cons of off-MLS pocket listings. Let’s first look at the three main reasons for choosing to sell your home off-market:

1) Confidentiality and privacy are your highest priorities. Under no circumstances do you want it to be public knowledge that you are selling your property and you are not interested in any public marketing or public showings.

2) You are not interested in preparing your home for showings, holding open houses or making much effort whatsoever when it comes to preparing your property for sale. You may not even need to sell it, but rather are holding out to see if a potential buyer will offer a certain price to take it as-is.

3) You are of the opinion that you’ll get the highest sales price when marketing your home off of the MLS because buyers who learn of your listing may believe that they’re getting a special inside shot at buying and will in turn step up aggressively to bid.

All fair and good, but what about potential trade-offs? We’ll look at these in depth tomorrow when our series on off-MLS listings continues. Stay tuned, won’t you?

Dreaming of San Francisco? Cece Blase offers local advice to San Francisco buyers, sellers and owners– and feeds the dreams of those who wish they could live in Tony Bennett’s ‘City by the Bay.’ Call 415-577-0809 or email cblase@paragon-re.com. www.ceceblase.com