Coming Soon and Pocket Listings

Pocket listings used to be a common practice around the country and in the greater Portland metro area, until the National Association of Realtors effectively banned them in 2019-20. Pocket listings were privately held homes for sale that real estate agents kept lists of and only shared with their clients or smaller pools of potential buyers.

Coming soon homes replaced pocket listings and are still an important (hopefully better) part of the real estate market. When a home is in coming soon status, it cannot be shown (buyers can’t go see it), until the home goes public on the market and everyone has an equal chance. But the coming soon status allows the seller agent to put the home listing in the MLS in advance of going public so all the buyer’s agents in that same MLS can share this coming soon information with their buyers and have it on their calendars to visit at the first opportunity. A coming soon home cannot be found publicly online, only through a member-only MLS portal. But if you’re working with a buyer’s agent they can show you, or if you’re considering selling a home and would like to learn how coming soon status can help your sale, set an appointment with Stephen FitzMaurice.

If you’re considering buying a home in the next twelve months and would like to see some coming soon homes not publicly listed, Kami Price, buyers specialist would love to hear what you’re looking for. Call today to set an appointment.

Kami Price, Realtor
Represented Hundreds of Buyers
Licensed since 2004
503-773-0000

Pocket Listings Vs Coming Soon Homes for Sale

August 22, 2022

For anyone wanting to buy a home in Portland before 2019, pocket listings were a common practice here and across the country until the National Association of Realtors effectively banned them. In essence, this type of listing consisted of privately owned homes on the market that agents kept “secret” lists of and shared with small pools of potential buyers, including their own clients. What we now call “coming soon” homes replaced the practice of pocket listings. With this newer type of listing, a seller’s agent can list the home in the MLS before it goes public so buyer’s agents in the area can give potential buyers a heads up about the coming property. No showings can happen until the home...

What is a Coming Soon Home in the Real Estate Market?

June 16, 2021

Coming Soon Homes are the New (but different) Pocket Listings Pocket listings are virtually extinct. The National Association of Realtors, NAR, has effectively banned the million-plus Realtors across the country from using the tactic. NAR instituted a new policy called the “MLS clear cooperation policy” which requires any Realtor to enter their “Pocket Listing” into the MLS within 1 business day of publicly advertising it (unless the seller signs a refusal of service). Entering a listing into the MLS means it is syndicated to all the other MLS members (mostly Realtors) and typically broadcast out to thousands of public websites like Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. Pocket listings used to be “secret or private listings” that a Realtor held onto and tried...

Pocket Listings Banned in 2020 – Portland Real Estate Market

November 18, 2019

Pocket Listings in Portland and throughout the U.S. have been a hot topic for a while. While some real estate agents argue for pocket listings in the Portland real estate market, most argue against them or at least want sufficient regulations in place to protect home sellers and buyers. Pocket listings are usually defined as homes for sale that are not listed publicly in a MLS system, but privately with a local Realty company who may also promote that listing to other local Realty companies or select networks of potential buyers. Pocket Listings Changes in 2019, more coming in 2020. Recently in 2019 RMLS, our local Multiple Listing Service here in Portland, Oregon created a coming soon feature for all...

Looking for Portland Pocket Listings?

October 13, 2016

We regularly update our coming soon listings on this website. I want to make a strong differentiation between coming soon and pocket listings. Pocket listings are generally bad for sellers and bad for the real estate market. Coming soon listings are a “heads up” a notice of a home that is going to be on the market soon but is not yet. Sometimes we use the term “pocket listing” to refer to our coming soon listings because it is a term the public may be more familiar with. What is a pocket listing? This is a home a sellers agent has in their back pocket and they are trying to sell this home off the public market. This is typically...

Portland Pocket Listings – Bad for the real estate market

July 1, 2014

The phenomenon has been around for as long as real estate agents: When inventory is low and buyers aren’t finding what they’re looking for on the market, some Realtors will go door to door in the target neighborhood to find a home that the owners are willing to sell, or they will make a “secret” pact with home sellers they know. The practice is known as “pocket listing”, because the seller never lists their home on the public MLS. Instead, they sell to the buyer that the real estate agent has in mind, often for less than they might have if they had advertised to the entire public market. In the Portland real estate market last month, according to the...