There is a conversation happening in the real estate industry right now about “coming soon” listings, and like most industry conversations, it is generating more heat than light.
Some agents use the strategy to limit exposure. Some use it to capture buyer leads for themselves. Some brokerages have turned it into a marketing arrangement dressed up as a seller benefit. The criticism of those practices is fair, and sellers deserve to understand the difference.
But I want to explain why I use a “coming soon” framework, because my reasons have nothing to do with any of that. They have everything to do with protecting sellers from a pattern of pressure that has become normalized in this industry and that, frankly, should not be.
The 48-hour problem
Connecticut’s SmartMLS has a rule that once a property goes active, it must be shown within 48 hours. The intent is sound. It prevents agents from holding listings off-market indefinitely.
But what I watched happen in practice was something different. Some buyer agents began using that rule as leverage. They would push to get their clients into a newly listed home immediately, sometimes within hours of it going active, before the broader market had a chance to respond.
The goal was not simply to serve their buyer’s interest in seeing the home. The goal was to get in first, control the timeline and write an offer before competition could develop.
Being first is a legitimate strategy. What troubled me was what came next.
An early offer would arrive, often strong on price, and it would come attached to a tight deadline. The seller, having had the property active for less than a day, with most of the market not yet aware, is now being asked to make one of the most significant financial decisions of their life under artificial time pressure.
That is not a seller-first process. That is a buyer’s agent working their strategy and doing it well.
The night I decided something had to change
I want to tell you about a specific transaction, because abstract principles only go so far.
I had a seller who chose not to follow my recommended sequencing. We agreed to begin showings on a Friday, ahead of a planned Saturday open house. Within a few hours, multiple agents had brought their buyers through, and by 8 p.m., an offer arrived.
On its face, it was a strong offer. But the real question was, was it the best offer the seller could achieve?
Here is the part that matters most. It came with an 11 p.m. deadline. This was a clear attempt by a buyer’s agent to create pressure and secure the property before the competition from the next day’s open house had a chance to materialize.
Let me sit with that for a moment, because it deserves more attention than our industry typically gives it. A homeowner, at 8 on a Friday night, is now being told they have until 11 p.m. to decide whether to accept an offer on a home they may have lived in for 20 years.
Instead of processing that moment with clarity, we were scrambling. I was calling every agent who had shown the property that day, trying to generate a competing response before 11 p.m. My seller, who should have been winding down for the evening, was instead navigating one of the biggest financial decisions of her life by the light of her phone.
As an industry, we need to ask ourselves honestly: Why do we create conditions where this is acceptable — a process that was reactive, pressured and exhausting? It should not need to be any of those things.
What a structured ‘coming soon’ actually does
Connecticut’s SmartMLS allows a pre-marketing window of “up to 14 days” under “coming-soon” status, with clear rules: no showings, no open houses, no offers accepted during that period. I use this framework, and I use it as it was designed to be used.
Here is my standard sequence. I select a go-live date, typically built around a Saturday open house. Six days before that date, I enter the property into “coming-soon” status. During those six days, marketing launches across every channel. Signage goes up. The neighborhood is notified. Digital and print promotion begins. Buyer agents are aware that something is coming and can prepare their clients.
When the property goes active, it goes active to an audience that is already engaged. The open house creates genuine energy. Private showings follow in an organized window. And when offers arrive, the seller evaluates them from a position of information and calm, not reaction and panic.
The 14-day window is not a delay. It is preparation. And the rules of the system ensure that no one can circumvent it by getting in early and forcing a timeline.
The research is worth knowing
I want to be transparent about the counterargument, because sellers deserve the full picture.
Zillow research of pre-market listings found that when exposure is genuinely limited, meaning a home is sold within one brokerage’s network or kept truly private, sellers can see a reduction in final sale price of between 1.5 percent and 3.7 percent. Separate data from Bright MLS found that pre-market listings took a median of 37 days to reach contract, compared to 20 days for full MLS listings.
Those findings matter, and they are why I do not support strategies that restrict a listing to one brokerage’s buyer pool or hide it from the broader market. A structured “coming soon” through SmartMLS is the opposite of that approach. The listing is publicly visible. Buyer agents can prepare. The home is not hidden; it is scheduled.
The distinction is between limiting the market and sequencing access to it. One reduces competition. The other allows it to build before anyone can short-circuit it with a midnight deadline.
The difference is not the tool. It’s the execution
“Coming soon” is not inherently good or bad. Used as a private listing strategy, it can restrict exposure and reduce competition. Used improperly, it can benefit the agent more than the seller.
But when paired with clear rules, disciplined execution and a focus on maximizing buyer participation, it becomes a powerful part of a larger strategy.
That is the distinction. The goal is not simply to bring a home to market. The goal is to position it so that every qualified buyer has the opportunity to compete for it. Because in the end, the strongest outcomes do not come from the first offer.
They come from the best one.
Linda Edelwich is an agent with William Raveis in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Get connected on LinkedIn and Instagram.