Upsides and Downsides of an Inhouse Sale or Pocket Listing

Selling a Home In-House

Most people who are going to be selling their home have three goals. Typically, there is a desire to sell their home for the most amount of money, in the least amount of time, with the fewest amount of headaches. Sounds great doesn't it? While these are the usual goals of most sellers it doesn't always happen for various reasons.

More often that not part of the problem will be hiring the wrong real estate agent who prices the home incorrectly. Anyone who has sold a home before will tell you how critical it is to hire an outstanding agent. Unfortunately, real estate agents are not created equal. The barriers to enter the real estate industry are very loose. Given this, lots of people are in the industry who shouldn't be.

Lots of agents who are in the business are constantly putting their own interests ahead of their clients. One prime example of this is what's referred to as a pocket listing or in-house home sale. A pocket listing is a marketing ploy some real estate agents will fast talk their clients into.

This practice, however, more often than not is awful for a home seller. With an in-house sale or pocket listing, the home does not get the normal exposure it would if sold by traditional means using the multiple listing service. With a pocket listing the only person who knows about the home being for sale is the listing agent.

An unsuspecting seller who doesn't give much thought to it, could end up losing thousands of dollars due to lack of exposure. In the article at Maximum Real Estate Exposure referenced above, you will see all of the pros and cons to an in-house sale. Trust me when I tell you, there are more downsides!

Whenever you are selling a home, make sure you know exactly what type of marketing program you are getting. Always opt for maximum exposure if you want to sell your home for top dollar.