I read a blog posted on Candy’s Dirt this morning titled, “Newest Status Symbol: Our House Sold Before Going on the Market. Hip Pocket Sales and Why Brokers Love Them” In this blog, Candy talks about the growing trend for brokers to hold new listings off the market and then sell them to their own clients.
She goes on to write, “The proliferation of Hip Pocket sales is really good for Realtors, because they are back cutting deals again and doing what they do best: network. Also, it’s good for the brokers, especially if they can get both sides of the sale in the same firm. Yippee to that one!”
I’m going to argue that hip pocket listings are not really a good thing for the vast majority of sellers. Yes, there are some sellers who just rather not have people in their homes or desire to keep the sale secret for some reason–however this is not true for the vast majority of sellers. Exposing the home to the larger market will most often allow the seller to achieve the highest possible final sales price and better terms.
We listed a nice home in west Allen several weeks ago on a Friday. By Monday we had 7 offers and the seller wound up with a higher sales price and an all-cash offer. If we had held the listing with the intention to sell it to one of our internal buyers, the result would not have been the same. The multiple offer situation worked in the seller’s best interest.
The REALTOR® Code of Ethics requires us to put our client’s best interests in front of our own. In the vast majority of cases, hip pocket listings most likely put our best interests in front of our client’s best interests.
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