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Customers of real estate software company RESAAS can now opt in to having listings published as “coming soon” on industry-leading search portal Zillow, Inman learned in a March 19 press release. The integration between the two companies started in September 2023.
Listings categorized as “coming soon” have traditionally carried additional marketing appeal to sellers, allowing agents to build momentum and gather market interest and feedback prior to formally accepting offers.
“Coming Soon listings represent the most recent and sought-after listings in the real estate industry,” said Tom Rossiter, CEO of RESAAS, in a statement. Connecting the RESAAS platform to Zillow provides a streamlined solution to promote listings for sale on the most visited real estate website in the United States.”
The practice has at times fallen into the “pocket listing” stigma because it limits exposure, allowing a few to get a jump on other buyers. It also misleads days on market for a property, a key metric in determining a market’s health and subsequent listings appeal to the market.
While it can build interest before a home is fully market-ready, it’s not unusual for buyers to demand to see it, especially as many buyers become anxious during the search process. The idea of fair competition, backed by an open-market model, tends to drive a lot of the contention over pre-market advertising.
Customers who pay for RESAAS’ Ultimate account level will be provided the option to push coming-soon listings to Zillow.
“Agents should still follow the Coming Soon guidelines of their local MLS,” said Tom Rossiter, CEO of RESAAS, in an email to Inman. “This won’t be for every agent, and isn’t for every market.”
RESAAS announced the launch of a ChatGPT-backed AI assistant last year to help users create listing descriptions and marketing messages, specifically helping users at the Premium and Ultimate account levels get over creative hurdles and more efficiently tackle general marketing tasks.
Beyond its role as a software partner, RESAAS launched an effort to help agents in Florida come up with home insurance for their buyers as carriers escape the natural disaster risks that come with living in a state hanging unprotected in a major hurricane corridor.
Despite also rolling out an enterprise solution in 2023, Rossiter said he wants to become more than a technology company.
“If people can’t get insurance, they can’t move, and if they can’t move, agents don’t work,” Rossiter said in November 2023.
Rossiter said then that RESAAS is more than a technology “platform.” Rather, it’s a universal resource for multiple facets of the real estate vertical. While he wants to apply technology to better what his company offers, the ultimate goal is to react to the unmet needs of real estate agents.