What a First Look Is Worth: The Two Numbers Behind Pre-Market
Sellers are starting to ask a sharper question at the listing appointment. Not “can we show it quietly first?” but “what does that get me?” Two studies, one from inside the industry and one from a university, put numbers on it. Here they are, with the fine print.
Number one: 4.6 percent
In July 2026 Compass published an analysis of 70,809 closed Compass transactions listed between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. Homes that began as a Compass Private Exclusive or Compass Coming Soon sold for 4.6 percent more than comparable homes that went straight to the MLS and portals, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 4.2 to 4.9 percent, after controlling for more than 50 variables, as Inman reported. The same analysis found phased-marketing homes went under contract 34 percent faster once active and were 29 percent less likely to take a price cut, though Compass describes those two as descriptive statistics rather than part of the causal model. The company publishes the figures on its Private Exclusives page.
The fine print: this is a brokerage studying its own listings. That does not make it wrong. It does mean it deserves a second, independent number next to it.
Number two: 1.7 percent
Darren Hayunga, a professor at the University of Georgia’s business school, studied Dallas-Fort Worth sales from 2002 to 2022 and found homes that were never marketed on the MLS sold for 1.7 percent more than comparable MLS-marketed homes, according to The Real Deal. The premium held until 2020, when the Clear Cooperation Policy limited off-MLS marketing to 24 hours, and disappeared after that. In 2022, pocket sales were about 3 percent of the DFW market.
Two different methods, two different markets, two different decades, and both land on the same side of zero. The independent number is smaller and older. The industry number is larger and newer. A seller deserves to hear both.
What the numbers have in common
Both studies measured homes that were shown to a real pool of buyer-side agents before the days-on-market clock started. Neither one measured a home that sat in a drawer. The premium, whatever its size, comes from reach without a clock: the property gets in front of agents who have buyers, and interest builds before the public sees a date on market.
Inside a large brokerage that reach is built in. Compass points to 340,000 agents. Howard Hanna points to 15,000. For an agent at an independent or a boutique, the reach has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is the reason Who’s Got Pockets exists.
How to use this Monday morning
- Bring both numbers to the appointment. “An independent study found 1.7 percent. Compass’s own data found 4.6 percent. Either way, a first look has never cost a seller money.”
- Offer the first look the same day. Post the property on the network. The city and property type show publicly; the address, price, and photos stay behind the member wall, visible only to 2,600+ verified licensees across 62 brokerages.
- Let Match Alerts do the reaching. The agents whose buyer needs fit your post get an email and contact you directly, one to one.
- Follow your MLS rules on timing, the same way the brokerage networks do. The first look is a phase, not a place to hide a home.
The network is carrying 87 live buyer needs across Orange County right now, each one a buyer-side agent who has told you what they are looking for. Membership is free, permanently, and no one here takes a piece of your deal.
