Private Listings, Pocket Networks, and a Question for Our Industry

by Craig Hogan

Are We Moving Forward — or Quietly Going Backward?

Word Count ~ 1,040 words | Estimated Read Time 4 minutes

I’ve been selling real estate long enough to remember when private listing networks weren’t controversial.

They were just how things worked.

And the funny thing is, the MLS was created to solve that exact problem.

I started selling real estate in 1996, just before the modern MLS system really took hold in Illinois. Back then the MLS wasn’t a digital database. It was literally a printed book — a thick binder of listings that would land in the office. Filled with the inventory.

And by the time you opened it, the good stuff was often already gone.

Because the listing broker had already moved it.

Phone calls. Fax machines. Quiet conversations between brokers who knew each other. If you were inside the circle, you heard about the listing. If you weren’t, you didn’t.

That was the system.

And honestly, it wasn’t a great one.

My First Week in the Business

When I first hung my license with a broker, I knew absolutely nothing about real estate.

I had just moved from another state. I didn’t know the market, the neighborhoods, or frankly, much about how the business actually worked.

What I did know was that we needed listings.

So we knocked on doors starting in Lincoln Park.

It sounds almost ridiculous now, but that was the work. We picked up new listings, and I remember asking the broker about getting For Sale signs for them.

He looked at me and said something I’ve never forgotten.

“You don’t need any.”

I must have looked confused because he continued.

“We dominate two or three areas. We sell nearly everything ourselves. We list to sell, but we focus on our own network.”

At the time I just nodded. I didn’t know enough to question it.

Looking back now, though, that moment explained the whole system.

Listings moved inside small broker networks. If you were connected, you saw them. If you weren’t, you didn’t.

And that was exactly the kind of environment the MLS was eventually designed to fix.

What the MLS Actually Did

The MLS didn’t just organize listings.

It changed the culture of the industry.

Instead of hoarding information, brokers agreed to share it. Listings became visible across the marketplace. Buyers had a fair chance of seeing what was available. Sellers benefited from more exposure and more competition.

Over time that information expanded beyond the brokerage community and into the public sphere.

Now listings flow into consumer platforms, search tools, and apps that buyers use every day.

And while the system certainly isn’t perfect, the basic idea still holds:

More exposure generally leads to more buyers.

More buyers usually leads to better outcomes for sellers.

Which brings us to the conversation happening across the industry right now.

The Private Listing Debate Is Back

Lately we’ve heard a lot about private listing networks again.

Pocket listings. Office exclusives. Pre-market opportunities.

Different names, same general idea.

Listings marketed quietly before — or sometimes instead of — going into the MLS.

Some of the current discussion has been fueled by brokerage partnerships and ongoing debates about the National Association of REALTORS’ Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires listings to be entered into the MLS shortly after they’re publicly marketed.

And depending on who you talk to, that rule is either protecting transparency… or restricting seller choice.

The Case Being Made for Private Listings

To be fair, the arguments in favor aren’t unreasonable.

Some sellers want privacy. High-profile clients may not want their homes blasted across every real estate site on the internet.

Others may want to test pricing quietly before launching publicly.

Some brokers argue that a “soft launch” — marketing a property to a smaller group of buyers first — can help refine the price before exposing the home to the full market.

There’s logic to that.

And sellers absolutely deserve input on how their homes are marketed.

The Part That Gives Me Pause

But there’s another side to this conversation that shouldn’t be ignored.

When listings start circulating primarily inside brokerage networks, the marketplace changes.

Buyers don’t see everything that’s available.

Sellers may unknowingly limit the number of potential buyers competing for their home.

And the biggest brokerages — the ones with the largest internal networks — gain an obvious advantage.

None of this is hypothetical.

We’ve already seen it before.

That’s how the business worked when I first entered it.

Several Things Can Be True at Once

One thing I’ve learned after nearly three decades in this industry is that very few debates are as simple as people want them to be.

Several things can be true at the same time.

After nearly 30 years working with buyers and sellers, I can say this with confidence: most clients are incredibly successful people in fields completely unrelated to real estate. They know their world — and they should. But understanding how a real estate marketplace actually functions is why they hire professionals. We all know what car we like to drive. That doesn't mean we know how to build it.

Private listings are not inherently bad.

There are situations where discretion makes sense. Certain sellers want privacy. Certain properties benefit from a quiet introduction to the market.

That’s real.

But the opposite extreme — a marketplace dominated by private networks and limited access to inventory — is something we’ve already experienced.

And it wasn’t a particularly balanced system.

It concentrated power inside small circles. It limited visibility. And it made the market harder to navigate for everyone outside those circles.

That’s not progress.

It’s just a return to an older model.

The Point of the MLS

At its core, the MLS was built around one simple idea:

Cooperation.

More exposure. More buyers. More competition.

And in most cases, that still leads to the best results for sellers.

Private marketing should absolutely exist as a tool when discretion truly matters.

But the broader marketplace still benefits from transparency.

That’s the balance.

One Last Thought

Whenever I hear today’s conversations about private listing networks, I find myself thinking back to that broker who told me we didn’t need signs because we sold everything ourselves.

In many ways, that’s exactly the model some parts of the industry seem eager to bring back.

After many years in this business, I’ve watched real estate change in ways none of us could have predicted.

But one principle still seems to hold true.

Markets work better when information is shared.

And sometimes the smartest thing an industry can do is remember why certain systems were built in the first place.

Related Reading

• Chicago Trifecta Market Update
• Engel & Völkers Private Office Global Luxury Report
• Modern Second-Home Ownership: The Pacaso Model

— Craig Hogan & Rudy Zavala
Hogan Zavala Group | Engel & Völkers Chicago

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