There\u2019s a reason the best brands in the world don\u2019t just launch products. Instead, they use sophisticated pre-marketing strategies that thoughtfully control when and how a product enters the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In retail, one of the most effective of these strategies is the\u00a0drop<\/em>: a product released at a specific moment \u2013 often for a limited time \u2013 to intentionally create buzz, urgency and demand.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a wide range of businesses that engineer \u2018drops,\u2019 from luxury brands such as Balenciaga, Hermes and Rolex, to mainstream companies like Apple and Chipotle.\u00a0<\/p>\n It allows a brand to control the sales process, build mystique and create demand for future releases. And if pre-marketing is used to sell\u00a0everything from burritos to\u00a0iPhones to\u00a0six-figure handbags, why not real estate<\/a>? In fact, similar strategies have powered home sales for decades.<\/p>\n Since our founding in 2000, long\u00a0before multi-phased marketing<\/a> of listings became a headline issue, we\u00a0were applying this approach at @properties Christie\u2019s International Real Estate<\/strong>, first in new construction sales, where it helped us maximize absorption and pricing, and later in existing-home sales, through pre-market strategies.\u00a0<\/p>\n For us, the approach was never about limiting access. It was about introducing a listing in a more controlled manner<\/a> to build demand, refine pricing and de-risk the sale before a full public offering. And it consistently yielded great results for our clients.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the recent debate over pre-market listings wasn\u2019t just a dispute between two big industry players. It was a test of who gets to define how real estate works: the free market (practitioners and their clients), or platforms.<\/p>\n Zillow\u2019s<\/a> attempt to ban listings that weren\u2019t immediately listed on\u00a0Zillow<\/strong> (even when they were shared in the MLS for all real estate professionals to see)\u00a0was a push to standardize behavior across an industry that has never been one-size-fits-all. It challenged discretion, consumer choice and\u00a0agents\u2019 ability\u00a0to fulfill their fiduciary duties. It reduced strategy to compliance and tried to shift the center of gravity away from the agent-client relationship.<\/p>\n The market didn\u2019t buy it. Agents kept advising clients based on what was in their clients\u2019 best interests, and sellers continued to ask for flexibility given their own unique situations. Meanwhile, buyers, despite all the rhetoric, continued to value early access to listings.<\/p>\n Then came the inflection point. Compass International Holdings<\/strong>\u2019 partnership with Redfin<\/strong> demonstrated that seller choice<\/a> and consumer visibility were not mutually exclusive.\u00a0<\/p>\n The move forced Zillow to confront a simple reality: demand for this approach wasn\u2019t going away. Their reversal<\/a>, not only dropping the ban of pre-market listings that didn\u2019t appear on Zillow first but also embracing pre-market listings through their own program, was a recognition that the market should determine the system, not the other way around.<\/p>\n Now that the industry\u2019s largest portal has come to terms with this, it\u2019s time to see if MLSs will too. The market has made it clear that phased exposure is both valued and effective. Listing policies should reflect that and not restrict it.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the meantime, Zillow\u2019s recent acknowledgment is a win for agents. It reinforces our role as trusted advisors and validates the idea that how you bring a home to market is every bit as important as where buyers see it \u2013 something we\u2019ve known for a very long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a win for consumers, not in the abstract, but in practice. More options. Better execution. Less risk.<\/p>\n Lastly, the industry has sent a powerful message about control: control over data<\/a> and intellectual property, control over best practices, and ultimately control over the agent-client relationship.<\/p>\n If we, as agents, hand that control to platforms, we become participants in someone else\u2019s business model. If we maintain it, we continue to evolve as professionals, creating value in complex, high-stakes transactions.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a win for all of us.<\/p>\n Thad Wong is Co-CEO of @properties and Christie\u2019s International Real Estate, part of the Compass International Holdings (NYSE:COMP) family of brands.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire\u2019s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece:\u00a0<\/em>tracey@hwmedia.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s a reason the best brands in the world don\u2019t just launch products. Instead, they use sophisticated pre-marketing strategies that thoughtfully control when and how a product enters the market.\u00a0 In retail, one of the most effective of these strategies is the\u00a0drop: a product released at a specific moment \u2013 often for a limited time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A test of who gets to define how real estate works<\/h2>\n
Will MLSs come around?<\/h2>\n