Zillow Preview listings are coming—but are you ready?

Every spring, homes flood the market. Only this year, you might notice a surge of listings that aren’t technically for sale…yet.

Zillow Preview listings let buyers scope out homes before they’re officially for sale. So far, 30 brokerages have signed up, with many more circling. Meanwhile, Compass is feeding its own pre-market listings to Redfin; eXp is doing the same with Realtor.com, Homes.com, and Comehome.com.

So what does this mean for house hunters? Redfin estimates that pre-market listings could raise inventory by 6% to 12%—a meaningful lift, given that market supply still hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

“This remains a supply-constrained housing market,” explains Zillow Chief Economist Mischa Fisher. “So making more listings broadly visible is critical.”

Pre-market listings aren’t new. About 80% of multiple listing services already offer a “coming soon” category. What’s changed is where these listings are surfacing and who can see them.

“Pre-market listings have existed for many years via pocket listings and private networks,” points out Eric Bramlett, a real estate agent in Austin, TX. Zillow’s latest move “provides more transparency to what’s been happening behind closed doors.”

How buyers benefit: Zillow Preview listings give buyers more homes to shop and more time to prepare and ponder their options before a house is officially for sale. “Buyers can see what’s coming, plan their next steps, and be ready to act when a home they love becomes available,” says Zillow’s home trends expert, Amanda Pendleton.

The catch? “Buyers will need to be much faster,” says Matt Bigach, a real estate investor in Knoxville, TN. “The ’quiet window’ where buyers would negotiate without competition will disappear.”

Pendleton recommends pre-scheduling tours, much like you’d pre-book seats at a hot new restaurant weeks before opening night.

What’s in it for sellers: Property owners now have a low-stakes window to gauge interest in their home and adjust accordingly. LeAnn Hiatt, a real estate investor based in Kansas City, MO, plans to use this soft launch phase “to determine how much interest there is for a property before I decide to go ahead and take action aggressively.”

And since days on market don’t start counting yet, sellers can experiment without their listing appearing stale or overlooked.

“Sellers can see how buyers are responding—through views, saves, and tour requests—and use that as a signal to refine their pricing and marketing strategy,” says Pendleton.

Fisher doesn’t expect a dramatic shift in industry-wide metrics like days on market. Still, highly motivated individuals willing to make the most of this head start can gain a genuine edge: “It can help sellers connect with the right buyers more quickly and make the process more efficient,” she says.

One tip: Real estate portals have inked deals with separate brokerages, so there is no one-stop shop for all pre-market listings; prepare to hop around to see them all.