“Pocket” Listing

Here are a few reasons why an off-market “pocket” listing might be better than a traditional listing:

• Preserve privacy: An off-market listing might provide peace of mind if you’re concerned about people knowing where you live or you don’t want to generate unwanted attention. In this scenario, agents share the listing with an informal network of other real estate professionals—in their office or elsewhere—who know prospective buyers. Even though this tactic is less likely to start a bidding war than a public listing would, you might be able to sell your building without much fanfare.

• Test the market: You could decide with your agent to put your building on a private online network as a test run, to see whether the price you set gets much interest. The advantage to this approach is that if your price is too high and you’re not generating much buyer interest, you can stop the private listing and move to the MLS without anyone knowing the price changed and that the building already had been on the market. When the entire MLS can see that your price dropped and that the building has been on the market a while, it might incentivize buyers to ask for a price cut.
• Avoid disturbing renters/income stream: If you own a property that has one or more renters in the building, you might prefer a private listing that limits the number of showings that might be required in a full market listing.
• Private sale: OCIG has successfully executed several private sales directly with property owners.   Our private buying group can pay cash for your property to avoid appraisals and long financing contingencies.