Should Home Sellers Consider Listing Privately? Real Estate Experts Explain
Written by
David Nadelle
Edited by
Jenna Klaverweiden
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Over the past few years, high home prices and higher interest rates, coupled with low inventory, have kept first-time homebuyers from entering the market and existing homeowners hesitant to sell their properties.
Most industry experts are predicting house prices to increase in 2025 — albeit at a slower pace — and markets to remain hot, as job growth, stiff competition and still-limited inventory will continue to fuel demand.
This year is expected to favor home sellers, and while most will go the traditional route and take advantage of a real estate agent’s expertise and list their homes on their local multiple listing service (MLS), some will opt to list their homes privately through private listings, which are shared with an exclusive group of brokerage agents and hidden from the public.
Should you sell your home through a private listing? Here’s what a couple of real estate professionals have to say on the matter.
What Is a Private Listing?
Not to be confused with a for sale by owner (FSBO), where a homeowner bypasses representation from a real estate agent and handles the sale on their home entirely on their own, private listings still require valuable input and work from agents and brokerages.
Going this route, private listings aren’t visible to anyone but buyers working with certain agents and brokerages, according to a January 2025 Zillow and Harris Poll survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers about their familiarity with private listing networks.
In an October 2024 Zillow blog post by President Susan Daimler, she argued that private listings hurt sellers, buyers and agents. “Brokerages tout private listings to their clients as a way to test the waters and try out a listing price,” Daimler said. “In reality, a private listing negatively impacts sellers’ ability to maximize the sales price by limiting the exposure of the listing, potentially reducing the wealth they built on the biggest financial investment they’ve made.”
Ultimately, you want the most eyeballs possible looking at your house listing. That’s the thinking of Barry Richards, an expert broker with Exit Realty who is licensed to practice real estate in Kentucky and Tennessee.
“The way to get the most money for a property is to price it correctly and expose it to as many potential buyers as possible,” Richards said. “This includes the Multiple Listing Service as well as social media and other platforms. Competition from multiple buyers and brokerages in an open marketplace is what produces the highest possible sales price and best terms for the sale.”
Is Listing Your Home Privately Worth It?
Listing on the MLS brings unmatched visibility to thousands of real estate professionals, and homes listed on the industry standard sell for more and sell quicker, according to the last major study on the subject conducted by Bright MLS and Drexel University.
Still, there are reasons for choosing to list your house privately. “A seller may want to limit the exposure for their listing … if there is a legitimate need for privacy surrounding the sale,” Richards said. While there should be choices to have a home discreetly listed for those that value privacy over pricing, this should be done in exceptional circumstances only.
“Private networks are only useful in the largest cities, like New York and Los Angeles, where there are enough off-market deals to keep the network going. In smaller cities like Colorado Springs, there really aren’t enough transactions to sustain a private network,” according to Andrew Fortune, Realtor and owner of Great Colorado Homes.
In addition to location, certain types of properties also may be more suitable for private listings. “We do have agents who specialize in certain types of properties, so I may call them before listing to see if they currently have a buyer looking for the type of home I’m selling, but 99.9% of homes go on the MLS here,” Fortune said. “I had a couple of off-market deals during COVID when inventory was low, but now we’re back to many days on the market.”
The biggest problem with private listings is that they could foster inequalities in the industry. Ideally, buyers should be able to see every available listing. “Sellers need to be informed that avoiding the widest possible marketing will limit their potential return on investment,” Richards said.
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