Above, Howard “Hoby” Hanna
Amid the broader—and increasingly complex—debate over private listings, one of the more independent-minded independent brokerages announced this week that it is launching its own private network as a “strategic initiative,” balancing the demand for so-called “seller choice” with MLS policies the company has previously criticized.
HannaList, announced this week by Howard Hanna Real Estate Services and rolling out in a limited capacity early next month, is not quite analogous to Compass’s “Private Exclusives” or “Coming Soon” categories, which often specifically buck MLS rules.
Rather, the company is seeking to offer a version of premarketing and private inventory within the MLS ecosystem, working with the current rules to facilitate an internal private network at the company that is intended to allow some premarketing and offer another tool for agents.
Speaking to RISMedia, Howard Hanna CEO Howard “Hoby” Hanna explicitly says his company is not seeking to align with either “camp” in what has become a highly charged and deeply ideological private listing debate.
“We’re big believers in the MLS, but we believe that our industry went down a path where we became so reliant on the multiple listing service,” he says. “The MLSs have grown over the years to be that sort of gatekeeper distributor of all the data, not allowing an individual brokerage firm…to test some internal pricing, create marketing solutions.”
HannaList is essentially a brokerage internal network for the company’s 500 offices and 15,000 agents built with MLS tools, with Hanna saying the brokerage took extreme pains to help ensure its system can comply with the rules of the 80 or so MLSs the company operates in—working with Ocusell primarily, and “hand-in-hand” with other major providers like Cotality, Paragon and Flex.
The system is also designed to automatically enter properties into both HannaList and the MLS and adhere to local policy without “double input,” according to Hanna.
Hanna says he knows some people are already accusing the company of trying to “hide” listings.
“No, what we’re trying to do is give sellers some choice…and work within the framework of the industry, work alongside the industry within the rules, and adapt as it moves forward,” he says.
At the same time, Howard Hanna has pushed back strongly against MLS restrictions imposed by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), in particular Clear Cooperation, which at one point the company called “misguided” and said its agents would not be forced to follow it.
But the brokerage is attempting to balance that criticism, and is not trying to align with Compass’s push to “end” MLS restrictions.
Hanna is sharply critical of “that one big company” that recently made a deal with “that other big company” related to private listings, but adds that he believes that seller choice in how to market homes—including through private networks—is an important and necessary evolution.
“Brokerage firms have a responsibility to provide unique and differentiating tools for their clients and customers, because it’s not a one-size-fits-all industry,” he says.
On principle
HannaList at its core, though, is offering what Compass champions with its “3PM,” or three-phase marketing, with the ability to test prices and “premarket” homes, at least initially keeping them on an internal platform that isn’t visible on the portals or publicly. Critics say this undermines the transparency of the larger housing market, and creates a fragmented landscape of competing platforms with their own listings that hurts buyers in particular.
Hanna disputes this, saying the company doesn’t see the private listing debate as “all or nothing.” He argues that not being “transparent” with the MLS as a “B2B (business-to-business) vehicle” for cooperation is not the same as the broader principle of transparency, and notes the MLS is not a public utility.
“So I’m not being transparent in a B2B. Now that doesn’t mean that a buyer can’t go to HowardHanna.com and see what’s there,” he says.
While saying that his company is not “anti-portal,” Hanna is also critical of “media companies” who he claims want everyone to market properties the same way, because they can monetize listings and leads.
Zillow (and many brokerages) have argued that the best landscape for both buyers and sellers are where listings are available to everyone at the same time, pointing out that from an economic standpoint, more visibility will nearly always be a benefit to sellers and allows buyers to access every available home.
Hanna says this skips over a whole segment of sellers who could benefit from premarketing, and that the brokerage owes its first duty to its own clients.
“So I know that argument gets hard because people are like, ‘I’ve got to look at multiple places (for listings),’ but at the same time, maybe it’s better to go create some urgency in a market with buyers that are approved and ready, see if you can challenge the market, get a higher price for your seller. And if it doesn’t work, then go to the public…and you’ve got some data, and you’ve got some information stacked onto it.”
This is something the market wants, Hanna argues, because in the end, if sellers did not want to premarket, they would reject the agents and companies that offer it. As a business owner, Hanna also says that having a private network of listings is a value proposition that will attract both buyers looking for more inventory, and agents looking for a leg up when pitching to clients.
“There’s a strategy play there with choice to their consumer,” Hanna says. “And that’s why we’re just trying to put ourselves in a position to have that choice as opposed to waking up and finding our business slides away, because we didn’t listen to the sellers and buyers on what they’re looking for.”
