Coach’s Darryl Davis writes that an honest assessment of how “coming soon” status is being used to undermine merchant selection is essential to building trust with consumers.
“Coming Soon” was a really useful tool when used correctly. Homes that are not ready to be shown to the public, such as those that are undergoing renovations or have not yet been staged, are beneficial to be aware of in a short period of time before they are actually shown to the public. Buyers know something is going to happen. It becomes active the moment it is ready.
That was the idea. And it was a good one.
How the industry has handled it since then is another story. “Coming Soon” has gone from being a practical tool for homes that aren’t really ready to being the default pre-marketing strategy used for homes that are completely ready. And it’s being sold as something that benefits the seller. In most cases it does the opposite.
Before proceeding further
I am a professional seller of choice. There are real benefits to keeping your listings in-house. It reduces foot traffic, increases privacy, reduces the number of strangers walking through your home, and connects potential buyers with one agent they can trust. For the right seller in the right situation, these benefits are truly important, and I fully support them.
What is valuable to sellers is the complete picture of both benefits and trade-offs. The trade-off with a “coming soon” or pre-market strategy is that limiting the buyer pool can affect the final price. Maybe not. But that conversation is at the list table, not after the fact.
What the private listing wars have created is what I call “corporate FSBO.” This is a list that is only accessible to buyers working with an agent at one brokerage or one portal’s pre-market feed. Fewer buyers means less competition. Sellers need to understand that and decide for themselves what is most important to them.
FSBO limits the buyer pool to people driving by. Company FSBO is limited to people who work for one company. Both reduce competition. The seller needs to know that before signing.
Private Listings, Coming Soon and Preview Listings Disruption
If you find this difficult to understand, it doesn’t mean you have a problem understanding it. That’s the point. My best attempt to sort it out is:
Private Properties: Homes are never publicly advertised and are only visible within one broker’s internal network. Coming soon: Homes are publicly advertised on the portal, but viewing is limited. In theory, no one should be showing your home, including the listing agent. Compass-Redfin Coming Soon: Exclusive 3-Year Deal: List with Redfin with Compass Coming Soon, prioritized and send all leads directly to Compass listing agents. Zillow Preview: Zillow’s response is open to all brokers willing to sign up, further fragmenting the industry.
(Don’t confuse Zillow Preview with Zillow Premier Agent; they are different programs. This confusion alone tells you what you’re getting into.)
Still confused? Consider the feelings of buyers and sellers. private list. Preview the list. Premier list. List of upcoming releases. This is P-word pea soup that caused pure mayhem and bewildered consumers.
Maybe it’s time to purge everything and go back to the days when we had a house we wanted to sell, an agent had a buyer who wanted to buy it, and we just introduced them to each other as quickly, publicly, and transparently as possible.
what is actually happening
The buyer was excited to see an upcoming listing on Zillow and called the listing agent, but was told they couldn’t schedule a showing. That buyer is motivated, pre-approved, and has been looking for months. Most people don’t wait. They go buy something else.
And here’s the part that agents know but don’t necessarily say: In any case, screenings often take place during the upcoming release period. I buy about 12 homes a year, and when I inquire about upcoming listings, agents are almost always happy to show them.
So if an agent is showing a home during Coming Soon status, honestly, the agent has that obligation to the seller. Fewer buyers have seen this home than if it were fully active, which can affect where the price lands.
Research backs that up. Zillow examined 2.72 million transactions and found that sellers who limited their pre-market exposure could lose between 1.5% and 3.7% of the final sale price. Positive MLS data confirms that pre-market listings take a median of 37 days to reach contract, compared to 20 days for a full MLS listing.
These are tradeoffs worth knowing. There should be an honest discussion before using this strategy, not a reason to avoid it.
The reality of lead generation
Here’s what Zillow Preview actually does for listing agents: Buyer inquiries are sent directly to agents and not to Zillow’s referral network. This is not seller protection. It’s not price optimization. Reed capture. It’s not a scandal. Listing agents have the right to generate leads. But sellers need to understand that, along with the benefits shown so far, that is part of the deal.
What should agents do?
Use “Coming Soon” as intended. For homes that aren’t really ready to show. The same Bright MLS study found that nearly half (47%) of office-only products passed through Coming Soon status before being sold. There’s no way 47% of those homes have rooms that need painting.
An honest conversation with a seller might go something like this:
“There are real benefits here: less confusion, fewer strangers in the home, and one person handling all buyer conversations. As a tradeoff, limiting who can see the home right away can affect the degree of price competition. Some sellers find these benefits worth it. Others want full market exposure. Either way, I want you to get both sides.”
“Soon” was a good idea. What we’ve done to that, making it the default strategy, wrapping it in the seller’s language of choice, and presenting it as a benefit to the seller while the listing agent’s lead pipeline is the real winner, is worth an honest look. Agents who do so will be the agents sellers trust most.
