NOT TRUE: “Pocket Listings Are For Dodgy Con Artist Types Of People”
We just received this email from a licensed real estate agent:
Please put all listings on MLS so everyone can participate freely and on a level playing field. Pocket listings are for shady, dodgy con artist types of people.
Our reply:
Perhaps I [the co-founder] should sit down with you and show you how the site works. Do your colleagues at [your office] ever send out a mass email to your office looking for a pocket listing or saying they have a buyer looking for X? They do the same thing at [every other brokerage in town]. Why not put them in one place so every office can share? Pocket listings are a fact of real estate and we’re trying to get them on one site for all to see and share. Not only that, but there are buyers looking for opportunities and until now they haven’t had a place for their agents to share their needs. We do not intend to undercut MLS. We simply provide a platform for agents to share properties before they get on MLS, or if they’re unlucky, a place to sell them after they try their luck on MLS.
We can’t force you to join, but your clients can and will be looking at our site, and they may contact you at some point to get further information about a property. Real estate is evolving and we’re here to help agents do more deals. It’s that simple.
As stated, I’d be happy to sit down with you personally and show you how the site works. I think then you’ll see we’re working FOR agents and our industry and not against it.
It’s true…not only is our co-founder ready and willing to sit down with any single person and explain the site, but we’re here to help the industry along and get agents more deals, and give their clients more options to buy and sell property.
We could post a laundry list of the top real estate professionals in the country that have, and sell, pocket listings all year long. They are hardly con artists. There is always going to be a hater in every crowd, and we realize that. It’s unfortunate the agent that wrote this refers to some of the most top producing colleagues in his area as “con artists”.
Rest assured, we’re doing our best to keep the cons and snakes out…
Check out PocketListings.net to see the quality of posts in your area.
Disregard that email from that person. Some “get it”, and some don’t. This person clearly doesn’t. My office shares them all the time. And I know the other offices in town do too. It’s constant. I think what you are doing is a tremendous step in the right direction. I joined, and will support and spread the word! I wish you’d hurry up and get bigger in my market though.