Found your dream house? Skip the note, hit the waitlist
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Unlisted founder Katie Hill at her home in Oakwood, Ohio. Photo: Courtesy of Megan Kavanaugh
Picture this: You find the perfect house with a great yard and a welcoming front porch in an ideal neighborhood. But it's not for sale.
The website Unlisted gives you a shot at that house.
Why it matters: Unlisted allows homeowners to gauge interest in their home even before they're ready to sell, and buyers can potentially get ahead of their competition by making their interest known.
How it works: The site features every property listed in the public record. Visitors can search for a house by address and place their name on a waitlist to be considered when the home hits the market.
- It's the modern version of leaving a note on the front porch: "I love your house. Here's my number if you sell."
Flashback: A few years ago, when COVID-19 made everyone restless, a neighbor's home with a pool piqued Katie Hill's interest. Hill then asked if and when the owner was thinking of selling the home.
- "His face just lit up, and he shared with me that he was starting to think about retirement ... his wife wanted to move to South Carolina to retire closer to her sister, and that they were planning on putting the house on the market in the somewhat near future," Hill tells Axios.
- That interaction sparked Hill — a native of Zion, Illinois, who now lives outside Dayton, Ohio — to found Unlisted last year.
Between the lines: A homeowner can search for their property, update the home's information and photos, and provide a potential timeline for when they may consider moving.
- They can also remove their home from the website completely.
Reality check: These are not private listings.
- "The biggest challenge we have with agents, honestly, is just the name," Hill says. "Unlisted doesn't mean it's for sale, and unlisted. It means it's not listed. What I came to understand in the industry is that real estate agents really think that I'm trying to do something private that doesn't involve them."
Zoom out: Hill is partly referring to the recent battle between Zillow and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), the MLS serving Chicago and the surrounding area. Zillow wants to ban private listings, arguing they stifle transparency by not showing everything that's on the market.
- MRED contends sellers should be allowed to sell their home however they want — to a wide network or through private listings.
What they're saying: "Our position at Unlisted is that you can have both because we're allowing people to express interest in any home at any time, so you can see the full market and at the same time, when you're ready to sell, you can sell however you want," Hill adds.