The value of your home is directly influenced by the sale price of other homes in your neighborhood. That’s why you’re probably interested in what your neighbors’ homes sell for. It’s also why the great home marketing myth should matter to you—and anyone else who owns a home.
What exactly is the great home marketing myth? It’s the widespread assumption that maximizing buyer exposure is the key to achieving the highest sale price. That’s why real estate agents often advise sellers, “Be patient. It may take time to find the right buyer.” Sounds reassuring, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s costly advice.
Think about it—if waiting patiently for the “right buyer” truly yielded higher prices, luxury brands like Ferrari, Rolex, and Hermès wouldn’t restrict their products to highly controlled, exclusive sales channels. These companies understand a fundamental truth: it’s not the volume of buyer exposure that matters; it’s how you strategically control that exposure to create a compelling perception of exclusivity, scarcity, and urgency.
How MLS & Zillow Can Hurt Your Home’s Value
The traditional home selling approach is for agents to write descriptive copy, take photographs, and then immediately publish newly listed homes on the MLS, Zillow, Realtor.com, and other popular home search websites. While this instantly exposes your home to potential buyers, it also quickly damages your home’s perceived desirability. Why? Because the MLS and online websites prominently display how many “days on market” your home has accumulated.
Buyers viewing homes that linger—even for just a few weeks—assume those properties have been repeatedly viewed and rejected by others. It’s like negative social proof—the unpopular kid everyone notices or the wallflower standing alone at the dance.
Diamonds, Rocks & Real Estate
Consider this: there are countless unique and beautiful rocks scattered all around the world. Yet most hold little or no value because they’re perceived as common and unwanted. Diamonds, however, command premium prices because buyers believe they’re purchasing something rare, coveted, and limited. Think about it—your home can either be perceived as just another rock or a rare diamond, depending entirely on how it’s marketed. This is the psychology your agent needs to leverage to achieve the highest sale price.
MLS Studies Validate Losses
A 2025 MLS study analyzing sale prices and time on market graphically showed that homes lose 1%-2% in sale price after just 30 visible days on the market. That loss increases to more than 5% after 120 days. The study adjusted for overpriced homes, so the loss in sale price was entirely due to the price-depressing effect of buyers seeing accumulating days on market.
How Private Marketing Turns Homes into Must-Haves
The secret to achieving top dollar for your home isn’t about waiting to find every possible buyer. Instead, it involves carefully crafting how your home is presented to buyers from the start, motivating them to quickly make you an attractive offer.
The best way to achieve this? First market your home privately—off-MLS and offline—with your listing agent leveraging platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and aggressive direct outreach to every local agent. Because most homes sell to buyers who are working with local agents, your listing agent’s direct texts, emails, and calls to area agents will expose your home to most potential buyers without accumulating visible, price-depressing days on MLS and online sites.
And this private, early exposure enables local agents to be heroes, offering their potential buyers early knowledge and exclusive access. The sense of first-to-know exclusivity eliminates any negative perception that yesterday’s buyers walked away while creating an urgency for today’s buyers to make fast, attractive offers to avoid losing out to tomorrow’s buyers.
Private Pre-Marketing: All Upside, No Risk
Marketing your home for a few weeks before resorting to MLS and online exposure has absolutely no downside. You lose nothing while gaining a huge competitive advantage—the opportunity to establish exclusivity, scarcity, and urgency right from the start. This approach also avoids the damaging effect of visible days on market and empowers your agent to leverage upcoming public exposure as added motivation for interested buyers to act fast.
Use the MLS and home search websites as a backup plan, not an upfront approach. Give early buyers the date you intend to “go public” to motivate them to act quickly with a premium offer.
Just One Excited Buyer
Remember this truth: every home ultimately sells to just one buyer. Your highest sale price will come from making just one buyer feel incredibly fortunate to have exclusive early access to something rare, special, and highly desirable—your home.
Ask These 6 Questions – You’ll Know Who to Hire
I no longer personally list and sell homes. But when the time comes to sell, visit 72about.com and ask my AI clone “What are the 6 questions I should ask when interviewing real estate agents to sell my home?” Listen to my answers and you’ll discover who really knows how to market and who still buys into the great home marketing myth.
