A new rule regarding listing houses for sale allows sellers to opt out of placing their homes into their local multiple listing service, the idea being to give their agents extra time to peddle the place within their own companies and their networks of potential buyers.

But do you really want to withhold your property from the widest possible audience just to give your agent a chance to bank the entire commission, or at least keep the payday in-house?

The evidence suggests that’s not a smart move.

According to a study by Zillow, sellers who bypassed the MLS in 2023 and 2024 ended up selling their places for a median of about $5,000 less than those who did. That’s a 1.5% difference.

Another study, this one from Bright MLS, found the difference to be much greater. Across its three main market areas — Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. — it found that houses promoted to its entire 95,000-agent network sold for about 17% more than those sold off the MLS. That’s a difference of $53,890 in MLS sellers’ pockets.

A 2014 analysis by two San Francisco real estate agents discovered that the typical seller in their market left more than $200,000 on the table when the house was not listed. And, while not directly about MLS usage, a study by Clever Real Estate found that sellers who used a real estate agent to sell their home earned a profit of $207,500 — $79,000 more than those who didn’t.

Of course, there are good reasons why someone would want to sell off-market. Maybe they don’t want people dancing through their home at all hours of the day and night. Perhaps there’s an elderly family member they don’t want to disturb. Or possibly they don’t want the neighbors to know they are moving.

But generally speaking, you want your house advertised where it will reach the broadest market possible — where it will be seen by the most potential buyers. And that’s the MLS: a locally run database that agents and their clients can investigate to their hearts’ content.

Moreover, under agreements with local listing services, the giant aggregators like Zillow, Homes.com and Realtor.com compile those listings into a giant dataset, which anyone in the world can peruse. Talk about the most comprehensive possible market.

That’s why the National Association of Realtors has had a rule requiring members to place listings into the MLS within 24 hours of obtaining a signed contract. (There are more than 1 million real estate agents and brokers in the United States, but only NAR members can be called Realtors.)

But some real estate brokerages have demanded that they be allowed to place their listing in their pockets — hence the term “pocket listings” — so they can try to sell the house to their favored clients. If they fail, they argue, then they can put the property into the MLS and allow the market to have a shot at it.

After a long and sometimes heated debate — including threats of lawsuits — NAR caved to the outliers, amending its longstanding “clear cooperation” policy so that sellers can now dictate exactly how long they will allow their agents to hold their listings out of the MLS. The length of time these “delayed marketing exempt listings” can be pocketed will be up to each individual MLS.

But the Zillow and Bright studies suggest that unless you have a special reason, you’ll do better by listing on the MLS right away.

Zillow found the listing-based price differences were particularly pronounced in communities of color. In majority-white neighborhoods, the difference in sales prices between MLS-listed and non-listed homes was about $3,700. But in neighborhoods made up largely of racial minority groups, the loss was $9,850. Broken down further, the difference was a whopping $13,730 in majority-Latino neighborhoods and $5,580 in majority-Black neighborhoods.

Interestingly, the study also found that both Latino and Black sellers “are more often guided toward listing their homes privately by agents.” Indeed, 3 out of 4 minority sellers said their agents recommended a private listing, as opposed to just 1 in 4 white sellers.

Zillow says their findings bear witness to how skipping the MLS “can cause sellers to miss out on the full potential of their housing wealth.” And would-be buyers often “miss out on opportunities for homeownership when homes for sale are only available to a select group.”

Besides the price differentials, Bright’s two-year study also laid bare some other interesting findings.

For one, two-thirds of all private listings eventually make their way to the MLS because they didn’t sell otherwise. And when an office-exclusive property did sell, it typically took longer to do so. Those entered on the MLS from the get-go went under contract faster.

Zillow and Bright are multiple listing services, so their research could be considered slanted. But I haven’t seen any studies that show pocket listings sell for more or sell faster. Until I do, I’m going with the idea that the most reliable way for sellers to get their money’s worth is to market their properties on the MLS.

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(Lew Sichelman has been covering real estate for more than 50 years. He is a regular contributor to numerous shelter magazines and housing and housing-finance industry publications. Readers can contact him at lsichelman@aol.com.)

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