How Not Listing Your Home on the MLS Benefits Sellers

In general, when you go to sell your home, you’re presented with the option to promote your home and reach potential buyers through the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS. However, when selling your Kiawah Island home, this isn’t the case. 

At Kiawah Island Real Estate, we don’t list our homes on the MLS. For those who are not familiar with our process, you may be wondering why we choose to keep our homes off the MLS. More importantly, you may be wondering how not listing your home on the MLS benefits you as a seller. Both questions are equally valid, which is why we want to take the time to discuss the many benefits of not listing your home on the MLS when you sell with us. 

We Don’t Use the MLS Because…

Kiawah Island is a unique market — and we know it better than anyone else

While the MLS can be a successful tool for many markets, it’s not designed to showcase the uniqueness of Kiawah. To sell a home on Kiawah Island, you need years of experience, an unmatched knowledge of the Island, and sheer finesse — and our 25 Sales Executives are experts in all three.

Many of our Sales Executives have been serving the Kiawah community for over 30 years. Not only do they have a comprehensive knowledge of the Island, but also of its buyers. Our Sales Executives know how to target your property’s best prospects, allowing us to sell your home quickly without the use of the MLS. 

It prevents us from focusing exclusively on Kiawah homebuyers

The use of the MLS would prevent us from exclusively focusing and counseling Kiawah Island homebuyers. By refraining from using the MLS, we have made a commitment to sell Kiawah and Kiawah only. If we were on the MLS, we would be obligated to serve our buyers wherever their preferences lead them, whether or not they remain interested in Kiawah Island. 

It’s dangerous if you don’t have the expertise

The MLS isn’t a complicated tool to use; many brokers can effectively use the MLS to promote their homes. The fact is, though, many brokers don’t have enough experience with the Kiawah Island market to effectively sell its properties. 

Selling the value of Kiawah Island is equally as important as selling the home itself. If brokers are unable to communicate the opportunities, amenities,  and community of Kiawah Island to potential buyers, there’s a chance that buyer goes with another option. After all, those brokers are selling other coastal properties as well, so it isn’t as important for them to find the perfect buyer for your Kiawah Island home. 

We understand the value of the Island, and our sole focus is to market your home exclusively to buyers who are interested in Kiawah. 

We have a better, more streamlined process

The ultimate benefit behind not listing your home on the MLS is that we have a practiced, improved and streamlined process for finding potential buyers. Instead of using the MLS, we invest in ongoing research to help us target and define the ideal prospects for your property. We identify where they live, what they do, their household net worth, what they’re looking for in a property and community and more. 

How do we do it?

Our award-winning team of marketing professionals, internationally renowned branding firm in New York City and national PR firm work together with affluent media outlets to create exclusive events and stories that reach luxury buyers. 

Because of the reputation we have built within the community on Kiawah Island, buyers see us as a resource and come to us first — and we exclusively show them our listings. 

Our efforts work, too. In the past three years, we’ve invested more than $10 million to promote the Kiawah Island lifestyle and real estate listings through national online and print publications. As a result, a recent survey found that 69 percent of Kiawah property buyers used the Kiawah Island Real Estate website to find their Island home. We are able to make such impressive investments in our marketing because we have chosen to sell Kiawah and Kiawah only. If we were on the MLS, we would not be able to focus solely on and invest solely in Kiawah.

On the Island, we have direct connections with Freshfields Village, The Sanctuary, the Kiawah Island Club, the Kiawah Island Golf Resort, the Architectural Review Board and, of course, those who call the Island home. 

Our investments — both monetary and relational — aide us in helping you find the right buyer for your Island home. From 2014-2018, KIRE sold 891 properties. The closest MLS firm sold 117 Kiawah properties. We don’t need the MLS, and neither do you. We have all the resources we need to sell your home right here on Kiawah Island. 

Not Listing Your Home on the MLS has its benefits. Contact us to learn more.

To learn more about our team, or to discuss selling your Kiawah Island home, contact us. We’re ready to assist you in any way that we can.