Mandarin Oriental, site of one of the numerous pocket listings on the market

As any battle-scarred veteran of multiple-bid battles – and there’s plenty of them about these days – could tell you, sellers are firmly in the driver’s seat in the Greater Boston market, and have been for years.

That’s beginning to have an interesting effect on the upper end of the market: Pocket listings are becoming increasingly de rigueur, with more and more luxury sellers beginning to feel they don’t need to expose their home to the beady eyes and tramping feet of the general public in order to get the price they want.

So-called pocket listings, or whisper listings, are those for which the homeowner makes it known to a broker that they would consider selling their home to a qualified buyer, but prefers not to officially put it on the market, declines to list on the MLS, advertise the sale online or in print, or allow any signage to be posted on the property. In the upper echelons of the market – where owners may already split their time between several properties, and have the financial flexibility to take as much time as they need to find their own dream home – pocket listings have long been the preferred sale method for a minority of owners.

Some real estate agents tend to eye brokers who sell pocket listings skeptically – since the listing broker usually finds the buyer themselves, they receive both halves of the commission. But often on the higher end it’s the seller who wants to keep news of the potential sale under the radar. Paul Grover, co-broker/owner of Robert Paul Properties, which has offices in Boston and Cape Cod catering to luxury buyers, said he’s aware of many instances in which logic and even necessity suggest it’s time to sell, but owners can’t quite face the heartbreak of pulling into a the driveway of a home that’s been in the family for generations and seeing the for-sale sign in the yard.

“Sometimes it’s the need for discretion; in these buildings, nobody wants to be seen as needing to sell,” said Brian Dougherty, managing partner at Robert Paul Properties. It can also be reassuring for a seller to make sure any clients brought to the property are personally vouched for by a broker they trust, rather than someone who just happened to see the home in a newspaper ad, he said.

Greater Boston A Seller’s Market
Of course, many high-end sellers, especially those who’ve worked in the industry in any capacity, may have several brokers among their social circle. By keeping a listing unofficial, they don’t have to sign an exclusive listing agreement with one broker and cut a friend out of a potential deal. Instead they can mention they’re thinking of selling and let the best man or woman win.

But while pocket listings have long had appeal to some sellers, the persistent strength of the sellers’ market may be turning them from an occasional preference to the default option for many sellers in the Hub. In downtown Boston and cities like Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville, home prices shot past their pre-crash peak more than 18 months ago, and they’ve kept rising since. A recent survey released this month by real estate portal Zillow named greater Boston one of the top 10 sellers’ markets in the country, and despite a wave of new luxury construction, overall inventory remains at historic lows.
With that much leverage on their side, sellers are becoming pickier about how they’ll sell, and to whom. Nowadays, even a pocket listing will receive professional treatment. For a listing of Dougherty’s at the Four Seasons, currently under agreement, the owner agreed to have the property staged, professional photos taken and marketing materials, including floor-plans, were created – but the deal never appeared on the MLS.

In other cases, due to the increasing proportion of foreign buyers interested in Boston, an owner may agree to have a property marketed abroad while keeping it off the books back home. One of Robert Paul’s agents is offering a floor-through condo on Newbury Street, currently under construction, to potential Asian buyers at home shows in Beijing and Hong Kong.

And even the knock on pocket listings among agents – that brokers are looking to keep both halves of the commission – is less and less the case. With only a small buyer pool eligible to purchase any of these high-end properties, selling one means “working back channels, and a lot of that comes down to reaching out to other agents. It’s a misnomer to think you have both sides of a pocket listing,” said Dougherty.