HannaList adds fuel to the escalating private listings war

"I sit in the pro-private listing camp because there are other benefits to it, but if brokers who practice private listings start making it the first go to push on a listing appointment, then we are heading toward a fragmented inventory landscape that could fundamentally damage the way buyers search for homes in America."

"We do not need to imagine what that world looks like. Look at commercial real estate. There is no commercial equivalent of Zillow or Realtor.com. Brokers work through fragmented systems and word-of-mouth networks. Finding the right property means calling a dozen firms and accepting you may never see what you are missing."

"One of the most compelling arguments driving the private listings movement—and Howard Hanna's CEO Hoby Hanna makes it directly—is that public marketing exposes sellers to data that works against them. The moment a listing goes live on Zillow or Realtor.com, a countdown clock starts ticking in public view."

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services and Compass are establishing internal listing networks allowing their agents to share properties exclusively before MLS listing. This practice enables brokerages to capture both sides of commissions on in-house sales. While private listings offer legitimate business benefits, prioritizing them as the default strategy threatens residential real estate's unified inventory system. Commercial real estate demonstrates the dangers of fragmentation, where brokers operate through disconnected systems and word-of-mouth networks, making property discovery inefficient. The industry needs compromise solutions, including portal modifications to remove days-on-market and price reduction history that disadvantage sellers in public listings.

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