Looking for a home before it hits the market? San Francisco-based Pacific Union International, one of California’s largest independent luxury brokerage firms, recently launched the proprietary online marketplace, Private View. Designed to showcase select listings before they show up in the Multiple Listing System (MLS), buyers, sellers, and real estate agents stand to benefit from Private View.
Pacific Union International CEO Mark McLaughlin explains why Private View works in today’s marketplace: “Because of our position in California, we are large enough, with 50 offices and 1,700 agents, to meet the interdependent aspects of supply and demand online. We have the critical mass to create the demand from our listings before these properties hit the market.
“Private View is open to our agents with signed listings,” McLaughlin continues, “giving them anywhere between 24 hours to 48 days before the homes appear on the MLS for a variety of reasons. We have a virtual filing cabinet of inventory that hasn’t hit the market. Private View provides early buying opportunities while giving both our clients and agents a competitive edge.”
“It is user-friendly,” McLaughlin adds. Prospective buyers and real estate agents simply register online then click on Private View, input search criteria based on area and price range. One photo and price per property is immediately uploaded to the site. Want to know more? Simply hit submit for additional info and the listing agent receives your request in real-time.
Market-wary buyers get early information. The goal—show the property to buyers poised to make an offer. All this happens before the seller is swamped with multiple offers, creating crazy-making bidding wars.
For listing agents, Private View combats that Days on Market (DOM) problem, when a property sits unsold. Pacific Union is betting Private View will funnel to agents interested buyers who are often further along in the buying process, recognizing the pre-MLS opportunity.
Private View hit the ultra-competitive Los Angeles market via Pacific Union’s website and through the Private View portal in late May. It is expected to be online in the San Francisco area this summer.
Agents are cheering Private View. Pacific Union’s John Hathorn of Pence Hathorn Silver Luxury Properties has five listings on Private View, netting him six buyer inquiries in five days. “Because we represent developers with new projects this gives us a chance to show these properties before completion and not worry time is marching on,” contends Hathorn. “When you are selling anything timely the number of Days on Market is your enemy.”
Currently, there are 33 Private View listings with a total dollar volume of $101.5 million in the Greater Los Angeles area. Properties range from $7.9 million in Santa Monica to a $15.9 million Pacific Palisades home. Private View also features a listing for $680,000 in Thousand Oaks and a $999,000 Glendale home.
In California’s current real estate market, getting ahead of the competition is a step towards buying that dream home.
