Archive
Another PocketListings.net Success Story
When we sold our home, privacy was of absolute importance. To meet our needs, Alex and Pocketlistings came up with an agent-first marketing approach that leveraged his pocket listings network (PocketListings.net). This helped us get the word out and find the most suitable buyer, almost instantaneously. Our property sold off market after just one showing.
-Milla and Chad
PocketListings.net testimonial, March 2013.
Real Estate Resolution for 2013 — join Pocketlistings.net!
Happy New Year!
We have a Real Estate Resolution for you: join Pocketlistings.net .Why? Here’s just one reason- our Real Estate Match™ service.
Every day, we receive multiple emails of off-market (not in MLS, not yet in MLS, pocket, temporarily off market, off the market for the holidays/summer etc.) listings and buyer needs emails from non-members of Pocketlistings.net . We see so many missed opportunities of matching a buyer need from one brokerage to a listing from another brokerage.
We’ve also noticed that many of these agents that email us are members of top agent networks. If top agent networks were an effective marketing platform, then why are these same agents sharing their “private listings” outside of these exclusive networks? We believe that top agent networks are an old school way to sell real estate. These membership networks only allow the sharing of listings amongst their group and are not searchable to anyone outside of that network. It doesn’t offer much more of a benefit than a mass email or sharing at an office meeting.
So make a New Years resolution not to waste time searching through old emails to find that pocket listing email or the buyer need email, from “what agent was it? “ ”Did I see that email last week or was it last month?” ”What brokerage was that again?”
Let’s us do the work for you with Pocketlistings.net trademarked Real Estate Match™ service.
Once you post your pocket listing or buyer need, we do some behind the scenes magic to show you potential matches for that post that might be suitable to you and your clients. If no matches display right after you submit your post, don’t panic. We’ll email you as soon as a match hits our site, and we automatically produce a Saved Search/Match for your post in your Control Panel, which you can always login and refer to later.
The old way of selling real estate is one sided: seller markets property, buyers search. We let you do that too, but now there is a new kid on the block…Real Estate Match™, enabling both sides of the equation to be heard, and matches to be made. It’s dating for real estate!
Your matches show up here in your Control Panel.
Happy New Year, Happy Selling and Happy Matching! -Pocketlistings.net
PocketListings.net In The News “Remaking Real Estate, Again”
Featured on SFGate (San Francisco) yesterday.
PocketListings.net
Much like finding love on a dating site, Web 2.0 lets buyers meet their dream homes and sellers meet their dream buyers in a direct, match-making process– without the MLS.
Because of new technology, many agents and their clients are turning to unconventional ways to list property for sale, and the increasing speed and reach of the internet (especially social networking) makes it easier to get attention to a property for sale, attention that was previously reserved for listings on the MLS. As more and more agents and their clients begin to achieve an “off market” sale at a desirable price and terms for all parties, the boundaries of ‘one national listing place’ expand– potentially to the point of blowing apart.
That’s what PocketListings.net is all about. Says co-founder Alex Clark: “We’ve already seen a high volume of posts for higher end property and I expect that will continue, and we’re seeing a much larger number of agents using our service to promote ‘buyer needs,’ which bring fence sitting sellers and their agents out of the woodwork, and into contract. As we develop our technology further to simplify the process of posting pocket listings and buyer needs to our site, we suspect many more brokerages to get in the game as their clients (the buyers and sellers) become more and more savvy to the alternatives available to them.”
-Web 2.0 Remaking Real Estate, Again [SF Gate]
“Off Market” Transactions Are The New Black
We set out to create a community where agents could share off market listings and buyer needs (privately or publicly), and a site that will give buyers and sellers an alternative to their local MLSs. We knew a long time ago that there is more opportunity out there than MLS will allow, and that the way the current system is run is not entirely broken, but getting pretty darn close.
The argument for skipping MLS is always the same, “You gotta expose your property to MLS to get the best price.” We’ve heard it a thousand times over. It’s simply not true. That is the old way of thinking. The new way of thinking is that a good price is what a buyer is willing to pay, and what a seller is willing to accept, and exposure can come from any number of online or offline channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, email, etc.) None of these companies or “social networks” existed when MLS was created…neither did the Internet! MLS was designed prior to the internet and the free and open exchange of information…and WAY before social networking.
We envision an age where licensed real estate professionals are connecting through multiple channels and creating relationships with colleagues and clients alike that foster transactions from one person to another regardless of whether it’s “on” or “off” the market. If your home or property is for sale, it’s “on” the market. It’s as simple as that. And if you get the price you want, the rest is irrelevant.
Perhaps the very location that is changing the world with their technology (Silicon Valley) should be a lesson in what we have in store:
Gautam Nadella, who works in management at Cisco Systems, Inc., said he and his wife bought their five-bedroom Menlo Park home before it went back on the market, after their agent told them it would be available.
“There is something to be said of taking uncertainty out of the selling process and the buying process,” Nadella said. “We were able to move quickly, calmly, with 100 percent confidence that the deal would get done, and as a result we did not have to go through the bidding process.”
We aren’t simply creating an environment to share “off market” real estate, we’re creating an alternative to the current system. Don’t fight technology and advances in our industry. Embrace, encourage, and promote change. You will do more deals. You will have more happy clients.
-In Silicon Valley Real Estate Frenzy, Off Market Transactions Are Frequent [Bay Citizen]
-PocketListings.net
Long Time No Blog…An Update On PocketListings.net
It’s been a while since we did a blog post here, as we do most of our updates on our Facebook Profile, but we thought it time to just remind everyone who happens upon this blog that we are very much open for business, but also very much in a “holding pattern”, as we like to call it.
Although the launch of our Beta version was successful beyond what we had expected, there are TONS of things we want to change. We thought the industry wanted one thing, but it turns out they want more! As a result, we have put all marketing efforts for this version (except a bit of Facebook and Twitter) on hold.
Our site continues to see a steady flow of traffic, new users, and increasing page ranks on all of the major search engines. We have agents joining us in California, New York, Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Texas, Utah, Kansas, Florida, Georgia, and many more. Word is definitely spreading and we’re diligently working towards a solution to all of the foibles of the current way real estate is marketed, and the mistakes we made with our Beta version (but that’s why it’s Beta!)
We appreciate your patience and are thrilled to see you telling your colleagues and using our current version, and can only say, “Just wait til you see what’s next.”.
Sincerely,
Alexander Clark
co-founder
