Your buyers have found the perfect house. The only problem is it’s not for sale. But what if they could get on a “waitlist” that lets homeowners know there’s interest? Could that be motivation to sell?
For markets when inventory isn’t matching buyer demand, new technology platforms are searching for ways to reach homeowners before they may have even considered listing. The concept isn’t entirely new. Real estate agents have long used the old-school practices of door-knocking and mailings to uncover potential inventory with the question, “Would you consider selling your home if you knew I had a potential buyer?”
Nowadays, technology can do the door-knocking.
Looking Beyond For Sale Signs
Entrepreneur Katie Hill got an idea for a different way of looking at housing inventory after talking with her neighbor. She had admired his house and backyard pool for her family and told him she’d be interested in buying his home if he ever decided to sell. She was surprised to learn the idea wasn’t so far-fetched. He was considering retirement and eventually planned to move. Neither was ready to make a deal at that moment, but they established something important: Hill knew he might become a seller, and he knew she was a potential buyer.
That interaction led Hill to build Unlisted, a platform designed to connect potential buyers with homeowners who haven’t put their homes on the market. Hill is quick to clarify that Unlisted isn’t a brokerage and it isn’t targeting homes already being marketed by an agent outside the MLS, commonly referred in the industry as “pocket listings.” Instead, it focuses on the 95% of homes that aren’t for sale yet.
Unlisted features property profiles for more than 121 million homes nationwide, drawing from public records. Buyers can search for a specific property and join a “waitlist” to signal interest. Once they do, Unlisted sends a mailer to the property owner notifying them that someone is interested. Owners receive a code to access the property’s Unlisted profile, and if they choose, connect with the interested buyer.
What’s Your Place in Unlisted?
Within the platform, there’s a role for real estate agents. You can set up buyer clients in the system, waitlist properties on their behalf and monitor activity. If a homeowner responds, you can help manage the conversation. Agents also can purchase a ZIP code, placing their profile on property pages in that area. Hill says the goal is to keep agents at the center of any eventual transaction.
Since Unlisted launched its buyer waitlists in June 2025, the company has learned of 18 homes that have sold as a result of connections made through the platform. The majority of those homes sold for more than $800,000. In all, about 42,000 homes have been waitlisted, representing about $60 billion in potential real estate sales.
Other Takes on Tech Door-Knocking
Other companies are experimenting with similar ways to help real estate agents identify and reach homeowners before a traditional listing hits the market.
For example, OwnerLetter allows buyers or their agents to target specific off-market properties with customized mailers to show interest. Homebot gives agents tools to monitor homeowner and buyer activity and identify homeowners who may be likely to sell, allowing agents to start conversations with homeowners about their potential plans and connect them with interested buyers. Property data platforms such as PropertyRadar allow agents to identify homes not for sale that match a buyer’s criteria and prospect those homeowners directly.
From ‘Not Selling’ to ‘Maybe'
Hill says the traditional market treats selling like an on-and-off switch: A home is either for sale or not for sale. But homeowners often spend considerable time between those two points. A growing family may be weighing the need for more space, or an empty nester could be considering downsizing.
“You don’t usually go to bed at night ‘not for sale’ with your home and then wake up the next day and say, ‘We’re going to sell the house,’” Hill says. “You tend to warm up to the idea gradually.” Knowing there’s already a buyer interested could accelerate that timeline, she says.
For agents, Hill sees this as another potential avenue for finding more inventory. An agent could identify properties that match a buyer’s criteria, signal interest on the platform, and, if the homeowner is receptive, start a conversation that could lead to a sale or eventually a listing opportunity.
Certainly, not every homeowner will want to sell simply because a prospective buyer expresses interest. But for agents working with buyers who can’t find the right home or who desire something highly specific—like a certain neighborhood, school district, floorplan or property type—Hill says it’s a different way to approach home shopping: Don’t just search for homes that are for sale but also ask who might be willing to sell.
“A lot of Americans may be sitting in their homes open to the possibility,” Hill says. “You bring them a real buyer, and there may be more people than you would think who are open to that possibility. You don’t know if you don’t ask.”
