Next week I’ll be closing escrow on 190 Tamal Vista in San Rafael. We went directly from ‘Coming Soon’ status to ‘Contingent’, without actually ever going ‘Active’. That was our plan all along, my seller wanted to find a good buyer before going active on the MLS while having the benefit of limited exposure on the MLS.
The MLS allows agents to post properties as coming soon for up to 30 days prior to becoming active. The downside to the coming soon status is that only agents can initially see the properties on the MLS, they aren’t fed to all the big third party websites like Zillow, Homes.com, and Redfin. However, agents can still forward coming soon listings to their buyers and if the listing agents and their sellers want, they can arrange showings prior to the properties becoming active.
Things have gotten a little more interesting as Zillow has felt left out of the coming soon action. While agents are fine to post properties as coming soon on the MLS, if they promote the properties in any other way, including simply putting a for sale sign up, Zillow is threatening to not display those properties as for sale once they become active. Social media posts in advance are a big no-no and easily reported and verified. In Coldwell Banker we often promote coming soon properties at our meetings, and sometimes they are sold that way off the market. Although the direction from Zillow is a little ambiguous, we are still allowed to promote properties within our brokerages: for now.
All that being sale, posting a coming soon listing on the MLS is an effective and acceptable way to promote a property before becoming active. I think it’s probably the best way to sell a property off the market, without technically being on the market and giving it the widest possible exposure. If the property is show ready during the coming soon period, and even if it's not, coming soon is a great way to dip your toes into the market and test your pricing.