Pocket listings, how agents use this to hook new clients

Most people have no idea how to go about selecting a good agent. Here is what typically happens. You are interested in a particular area of town so you go on line and search the listings, pick up the real estate books at the grocery store to see what is on the market and you start going to open houses. Before you know it you are talking to a real estate agent and they start telling you about some “hot” homes that are about to come on the market. Agents call these “pocket listings” because they are in their back pocket and only their clients will know about them. But is this agent on your side or are they just trying to sell you the home? They are leveraging their knowledge and your fears to sell you a home. Besides, do you really think many homes are truly sold this way?

One of my agents started working with a million dollar buyer who was looking in a smaller older neighborhood. In these types of markets there aren’t many agents and it’s typical for the client to have at least met with more then one agent. So this buyer was polite and had seen a few homes with another agent, Rich, so he did the right thing and called to tell him he was working with another agent. All of sudden Rich said he knew of several “hot listings” that were about to come on the market. I thought it odd for Rich to now have pocket listings that were just what the buyer wanted to see. Where were these listings last week when he was working with the buyer? Being curious I went online to see his listing and selling history and during his entire career he hasn’t had a single million dollar listing but all of sudden he was about to have several.