A private exclusive listing is an off-market home that can be shared by a COMPASS agent directly with their colleagues and their buyers. Property details aren’t disseminated widely and won’t appear on public home search websites. Private exclusives are not for everyone. But many love them. Many CLIENTS love them, and if we are to work in our client's best interests we have to listen to them.
Listing your home as a private exclusive allows you to control what information is shared about you and your home while still getting exposure to thousands of top agents at COMPASS. Those who argue that it does not are often very small brokerages. There are arguments for and against a private exclusive, but here are some important things for home sellers to consider:
1. PRIVACY: A seller's privacy is always valuable, but especially in certain life circumstances (e.g., you’re a high profile individual, you're going through a divorce, you're moving to new city for job before notifying employer)
2. SAFETY: “You don’t have to sell your safety to sell your home” Some clients don’t want people driving past their home and looking in the windows, driving up driveways, etc. Some don't even want all their neighbors to know they are selling.
3. DAYS ON MARKET. The averages spewed globally about days on market has fueled a perception that a property should sell within days of listing. The averages are inaccurate at best, so you have to compete. When you test market positioning (pricing in particular) and gather feedback without accumulating days on market, you may be helping the perception of the property.
4. TIME: Private exclusives give sellers time to perfect marketing before going live. This allows for the best photos and video, photographed in the best weather that may not happen immediately. Placing PR can take time too.
5. PRICE TESTING: You have the ability to hide the price on the listing page and can reset price with no price history when you list on the open market/ MLS.
6. MARKET TESTING: If you have a unique property without clear valuation comps, a private exclusive is the only way to test the market without unduly influencing public perception.
A private exclusive is a specific choice made by the seller. It is never forced upon sellers, ever. It allows sellers to expose their property more quietly amongst a massive group of professional COMPASS agents and their clientele/buyers. A private exclusive in a tiny brokerage would be a very limiting proposition for sellers and definitely not in a seller's best interests in my opinion, in that the exposure would be extremely limited. A large brokerage with outstanding, professional agents fully and actively engaged in the market does indeed provide a very wide exposure, maybe not as wide as if it was a public listing, but certainly a highly potent market.
