A new proptech startup, Unlisted, is offering a digital platform for private real estate listings in Texas, aiming to provide an alternative to traditional pocket listings in the luxury market.
Unlisted, based in Dayton, Ohio, has launched The Waitlist, a web application that allows homeowners to measure buyer interest before formally listing their properties. The app enables potential buyers to express interest in homes that are not yet on the market. Homeowners can interact with these interested users and decide when or if to proceed with a sale. The company’s business model involves selling real estate agents exclusive rights to represent specific zip codes on its site.
Since its launch on June 18, Unlisted has seen 7,000 homes—valued at about $5 billion—generate waitlists through the platform. The company aims to create profiles for every home nationwide using automated property descriptions and public data from ATTOM.
Real estate agents who purchase zip codes within Unlisted’s system are designated as Local Experts and have their information attached to all home profiles in those areas. Currently, most participating agents are affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty.
JB Hayes, an agent with Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s who has acquired five Dallas-area zip codes through Unlisted, sees potential for the platform in facilitating off-market transactions. “Before, people would share off-markets with their colleagues that are in other brokerages, or people they’ve done deals with, but that’s illegal marketing now,” Hayes said.
Hayes refers to ongoing legal debates surrounding the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Clear Cooperation Policy. This rule requires listing agents to add properties to the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) within one day of any public marketing effort. Companies like Zillow have supported strict enforcement of this policy by interpreting yard signs and social media posts as forms of public marketing.
NAR and Zillow are currently challenging Compass over its use of private exclusive listings—a practice that has influenced other firms such as Douglas Elliman, Corcoran, and Coldwell Banker to test NAR’s rules.
Despite these industry disputes, Unlisted founder Katie Hill says her company is not designed for off-market sales. “That’s not the vision right now. We want to be a readiness site, not a listing site,” Hill said. “The entire industry as we know it competes in listings; nobody competes in folks who are not for sale.”
Starting in November, homeowners will be able to authorize agents on Unlisted’s platform to update their property profiles.
The app may be particularly relevant in Austin due to high property taxes and no mandatory disclosure of sales prices—factors that encourage privacy among luxury buyers and sellers. According to Jeanne Parker of Jeanne and Julie Residential Group: “Austin is an anomaly. California puts everything on MLS, everything. And Dallas and Houston put pretty much everything on MLS. So Austin’s really kind of an anomaly in the country.”
The group notes that while more ultra-luxury sellers in Austin are moving toward open market sales due to a shrinking buyer pool this year, there remains steady demand for private transactions among those prioritizing privacy over maximizing sale price.
“People get the most exposure when you promote and market and list. That is definitely the best way to go, because you’re going to drive up the price, and there’s more people that are going to get their eyeballs on it. There are some people that just don’t care,” Hayes said.
“They get the price they want, they’re going to be happy. So why go through all the hoops to make the house show-ready?”
